Willoughby Street

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This is the story of a black youngster growing up in a predominantly white and Jewish neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. The author reminisces about events occurring from 1941, when he was three, to 1957, his senior year in high school. A coming-of-age narrative, this is also a tale of the racism of that time--a period shortly before the beginnings of major change in the following decade. The author's adult inner circle taught him how they somehow accepted the injustices that were bestowed upon them and how to overcome them with pride and perseverance, as well as to try to understand the negative reasoning behind it all. Was it because people felt intimidated or jealous? His family gave him encouragement and the insight to learn from other people's ignorance, not to rebel against it. Education was the key to life while growing up in the neighborhood then. Bragaw Avenue was accredited highly as a grammar school, and Weequahic High School was rated academically in the top ten throughout the country. Even the scholastically weak benefited from these schools.