Away from My Mother's Watchful Eye (ePub)

This is a coming of age story that chronicles my early years growing up in inner-city, Brooklyn, New York amidst the turbulent, racially and socially explosive 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing and while many older Negroes supported Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his calls for peaceful protests, many young Negroes gravitated to a more militant and confrontational approach to winning freedom and equal treatment under the law for all Negroes. Young people were constantly being called upon to be down with the revolution and encouraged to hate Whitey and to fear the Police in particular who were looked upon as an occupying force within the Negro community.
All of this was swirling around me as I struggled to just be a kid. I certainly didn't hate anyone and my being bussed to a White school only served to complicate things as I found myself eventually feeling trapped in my own community and walking a tightrope between two diverse cultures. Surprisingly, I found peace, friendship and acceptance in the most unlikely of places.
My years in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn were both character building and life changing and laid the foundation for my becoming the man that I am today. This story is told through the eyes of a precocious and intelligent little boy and it's told with humor and love. It is my hope that while you're reading this book you will get a strong sense of the love I had for my family, my community and the new world of friendships that embraced me. Being away from my mother's watchful eye offered me a newfound freedom but it also demanded that I grow up quickly, keep my wits about me and utilize everything I'd ever learned.