LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic “A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post “A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality. When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers. Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.

Get the Summary of Donovan Ramsey's When Crack Was King in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "When Crack Was King" by Donovan Ramsey offers a multifaceted exploration of the crack epidemic's impact on the Black community. Through personal stories, Ramsey illustrates the profound effects of the drug on individuals and society. Elgin Swift's transformation from a troubled youth in Yonkers to a successful car salesman and investor contrasts with his PTSD and fear of poverty. Miss Woodley's journey from a three-decade crack addiction to becoming a substance abuse counselor exemplifies the potential for recovery...

With exceptional power, Robinson exposes both the gravity and levity of relationships — formed in duty, in fear, in need — and the subtle ways we attempt to escape their persistent pull. At turns humourous, chilling and tender, Robinson’s fiction displays a versatility in tone and subject that mirrors the stories of our lives, real or imagined, domestic or exotic. His writing elevates the "What If?" to new imaginary heights.

"[Sh]ould take a prominent place on the shelf of literature about the man who changed 20th century America." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review In this new biography, distinguished historian Paul Harvey examines Martin Luther King’s life through his complex, emerging religious lives. Harvey introduces many readers, perhaps for the first or only time, to the King of diverse religious and intellectual influences, of an increasingly radical cast of thought, and of a mélange of intellectual influences that he aligned in becoming the spokesperson for the most important social movement of twentieth-century American history. Not only does Harvey chronicle King’s metamorphosis and its impact on American and African American life, but he seeks to explain his “afterlives”—how in American culture King became transformed into a mainstream civil saint, shorn of his radical religious critique of how power functioned in America. Harvey’s concise biography will allow readers to see King anew in the context of his time and today.

Nu Erth is a creature birthed all alone on a world that he knows nothing about, given a quest by a strange voice to name every creature and thing that Nu Erth sees. Nu Erth takes off on adventures to do the quest given to him by this strange voice from a sphere of light. Along with the quest, Nu Erth is also given the ability to use knowledge of any and all magic by the strange voice. Yet Nu Erth must discover what magic is first. Oh, and did we forget to mention that Nu Erth is the only hatchling dragon of his kind on the new world where he is birthed? Being the only hatchling dragon of his kind on this new world, What awaits Nu Erth as he begins his adventures to do the quest given to him by the strange voice from the sphere of light? Does Nu Erth make any friends along his adventures? Does Nu Erth meet other hatchling dragons or even dragons of his own kind? Only Nu Erth Adventures can tell you that and what awaits our hatchling dragon.