Brothers: Black and Poor -- A True Story of Courage and Survival

by Sylvester Monroe and Peter Goldman

Book Overview

They came of age during the '60s in a Chicago ghetto, bound by the ties of race, class and culture and dreaming of a better life. Newsweek reporter Sylvester Monroe returns to chronicle the lives of his friends in a stark, brutally honest study of the fate of poor black men in America. HC: Morrow.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345361563
• ISBN13: 9780345361561
• Release Date: September 1989
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Powerful, Realistic, and Depressing

This is a realistic, depressing, yet partly inspiring story of 12 young men that grew up in Chicago's notorious Robert Taylor public housing projects during the 1960's-70. Growing up in that isolated underclass atmosphere amid drugs and violence and far from middle class comforts, these young men learned the rough realities of the streets. Yet they were not without dreams, and a couple even achieved them. Author Sylvester "Vest" Monroe was the most successful, attending an elite boarding school that left him culture shocked and homesick, yet he persevered, eventually graduating from Harvard and joining Newsweek as a correspondent. A couple of his buddies did OK, but most stayed in that tragic cycle of near-despair. Just as sadly, effective solutions beyond platitudes are in short supply, athough teen pregnancy prevention programs, early childhood education, and social workers help somewhat. This book is quite valuable for students, sociologists, former residents, and anybody with an interest in project life. As many know, Chicago has now dismantled the Robert Taylor Homes and other high-rise public housing, scattering residents into privately-owned Section 8 apartments in various neighborhoods and poorer suburbs. One hopes this will prove beneficial.

Brothers---Powerful and Meaningful

Brothers, a true story by Sylvester Monroe and Peter Goldman, takes you into the lives of Sylvester and 11 of his friends from the south side of Chicago. You learn about the pressures they face growing up in poverty....the questions that enter their mind, questions we never have to worry about. Will they, like so many others, turn to drugs and crime or will they in some way succeed and get out of the harsh lives they live? Many have no father to support them instead they have brave mothers who try their best to create strong, intelligent children, but only some succeed. What will become of those who don't get out? Will the down hill spiral of drugs, gangs, pimping and crime catch them and bring them down like so many others? Will the white world outside exclude them and judge them because of their color? In this book is incredibly interesting to see how these 12 men can start from the same roots and be the best of friends, but in the end turn to completely different lifestyles. Monroe and Goldman truly catch the reader's interest by jumping from the story of one man to another, leaving you dyeing to know what happens to every one. This book also serves as an eye opener. You see the lives of a black men through black men's eyes. It really puts into perspective the discriminations and poverty that faced black people in the past, and even today. Throughout the book each character has his own encounter with white people. Some don't get hired for jobs because of their race, others get onto an elevator to see a woman grasp her purse a little tighter because of their presence. It was truly embarrassing reading how these people were treated by the "master race" and it changed my own way of acting around people. Oprah Winfrey says, "I really wish America could read it" and I completely agree. This book really is meaningful....it makes you feel like you are the one being turned against, like your own family is the one who is being treated so poorly. For them every day is a fight, if they want to get out of the ghetto they have to work twice as hard as any white man. Some surrender to this fight, like their invisible fathers, others stay strong and pursue their goals even though it is difficult. However, in the world of the white man those who have the power to get out of the ghetto may have their dreams crushed. Monroe and Goldman's style of writing was excellent throughout this book. Their spectacular imagery and passion kept the characters alive and the reader hooked. They put their heart and soul into this book and it paid off immensely. Beautiful lines mixed with intensity made this book incredible toexperience. There were some lines where I couldn't help but say wow. This non-fiction book was onelike no other, it was full of love and hate.. a war against white and black. Jesse Jackson says, "It mademe laugh, it made me cry. It had everything--humor and passion, hope and despair, crime andpunishment, defeat and triumph. The first hon

Brothers- the struggle of black men in America

If you are looking for a good, enjoyable, and different than normal read, "Brothers" is the book for you. "Brothers" is a story of twelve black men from the Chicago projects, and a very good story too. "Brothers", which is written by one of the twelve, is one of the first books that gives an actual and honest look at black men in America. It truly defines the struggles and hardships of black men in the projects, and did a very good job showing the courage that was necessary to survive in life. Sylvester Monroe, a Newsweek correspondent and one of the twelve "Brothers", teamed up with Peter Goldman to write this book. The book is broken up into six parts, each of which is a progression in time from the previous. The chapters in the book are, in a way, like short vignettes. Each chapter focuses on solely on one of the characters and an event in their life. Sometimes though, the chapter will cover a very large section of the persons life to show how they progressed. The twelve "Brothers" were Sylvester Monroe, Honk Johnson, Billy Harris, Moose Harper, Greg Bronson, Ed Hamilton, Sonny Spruiell, Ray Stingley, Half Man Carter, James Bonner, Pee Wee Fisher, and Steve Steward. Each of these men are unique in their own way, and each chooses his own path through life. The twelve "Brothers" are not bound together by the blood running in their veins, as the title may suggest, but rather by the circumstances intertwined in their lives. According to the choices they make for themselves, each man will either find a way out of the ghetto and to a better life, or will fall into the trap of drugs, gangs, and stay in the ghetto for the rest of their lives. Sylvester Monroe, for example, was one of the lucky few men of "Brothers" that made it. Sylvester, nicknamed Vest, was given his chance to get out of the ghetto and have a better life, and he took it as quick as he could. As a young kid, Vest's mom would always say that education was the best thing for a black man and that he (Vest) could be anything he wanted to be as long as he worked twice as hard and was twice as good as a white man. With this support and encouragement, Vest stayed in school and did well. Later on in life, one of Vest's teachers, Leroy Lovelace, gave him the chance to get out of the ghetto. It was called "A better chance" or the ABC program. With it, Sylvester was given a scholarship to attend St. George's in Rhode Island. At St. George's, Vest suffered from extreme culture shock. After a few weeks, he wanted to come home, but he didn't. Vest stuck it out until he graduated, and then went to Harvard where he graduated and became a Newsweek correspondent. Sylvester Monroe was very lucky. He had a mother who helped keep him on the right track growing up and then a teacher who gave him the chance of a lifetime. But if Vest had stuck with school and worked hard, he would have never made it. Unfortunately, Vest was only one of a couple of the "Brothers" who made it to a better life. Some of th

Brothers

Brothers by Sylvester Monroe and Peter Goldman is a nonfiction story about twelve African American men growing up in the Taylor projects on Chicago's South Side. Each chapter is about different characters and events. I found the book to be very interesting. Before I read this book, I didn't know very much about what it was like to be an African American and live in poverty. After finishing the novel, I learned an abundance of information about the African American culture and what their typical life was like. Very few of the characters were able to journey out of the city into a better life. To be successful, black people had to work twice as hard at everything they did because of the racial discrimination. The majority of the men stayed in the projects their entire life. Some African Americans such as Honk Johnson made a living by selling drugs, stealing, and pimping. People like Honk usually made a decent living by taking chances with the law hoping not to get caught. This may have worked for a while, but eventually you're luck would run out. For Honk, this day came when he stole from a store and faced ten years behind bars. Other individuals believed that you could be anything you wanted if you worked hard enough. Sylvester Monroe, the author of the book is a perfect example of this. He grew up in The Taylor projects, and was lucky enough to receive a scholarship because of his hard work to a prestigious private school called St.Georges in Rhode Island. His teacher in Chicago at Wendell Phillip's High School, Mr. Lovelace, truly valued learning. After his first year of teaching, he became very harsh on his students failing those who didn't do their homework only because he wanted them to succeed. He discovered a program that allowed students from the ghettos to become educated in private schools across the country. The program only accepted three exceptional students to be transferred to different schools. One of the students he chose was Sylvester Monroe. After Monroe finished high school with straight A's, he went to Harvard and eventually became a correspondent for Newsweek. Some of the students at Wendell High had a very non-accepting attitude towards white people. For example, Steve was frightened by white people, afraid that they would make fun of his skin color. Steve was selected for the ABC program, which would have transferred him to a private school of his choice anywhere in the country, but instead he chose to go to Northwestern, just 15 minutes away from his Chicago home. Eventually he quit school, and began doing drugs such as PCP and marijuana all because he didn't like white men and women.I really enjoyed reading the book. One reason why I enjoyed it was because it concentrated on character development. Billy Harris was my favorite "brother" in the book. Billy had a love for basketball his entire life. Not only did he enjoy playing the sport, but he was also very talented. After he graduated from D