Book Description

"38126 KING's KIDS ... Nobody Said We Were Poor" is a snapshot of a beautiful Memphis community with a rich, vibrant history that many African-Americans will recognize and remember. This back-in-the-day glimpse of a young woman growing up in the segregated south is amazing because her parents try to shelter her from the hurt, harm, hostility of racism, bigotry, inequality of America in the 50's and 60's. The strong village mentality within the 38126 zip code brings together a valuable, collective spirit. Written in the first person, the author tells her truth and her story with poetry and prose to share how adults banned together as one unit to support, structure and stabilize youngsters during the difficult days of civil unrest and man's inhumanity to man. Although the young woman is familiar with segregation and Jim Crow captured in Jet and Ebony magazines and from Black Literature, she is blind to real racism until it slaps her smack in the face. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is murdered in her neighborhood, at the Lorraine Motel, she finally starts wiping her rose colored glasses to see how hard it is to survive as a person of color in America. Her fun, entertaining, exciting childhood had created a bright, bubbly teenager ready to explore, discover and become. The firm foundation she received from her family, her church, and her school provided the necessary toolkit for her to navigate through whatever challenges and adversities life would throw on her journey. The irony behind her zest for life and quest to dream impossible dreams were predicated on the premise that nobody said she was poor, marginalized, impoverished, a failure, and couldn't learn. Instead, the 38126 community manifested an inner self-worth to win, to succeed, to achieve as King's Kids! The solutions to America's primary problems won't come by just throwing money at glitzy programs with empty promises. America must start looking within herself to regain love, hope and faith!