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Tookie

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About Me

On December 29, 1953, in New Orleans Charity Hospital, I entered the world kicking and screaming in a caesarean ritual of blood and scalpels. Because this was 1950s, pre-Civil-Rights Louisiana, my 17-year-old mother, a "colored woman," was deprived of anesthetics as her torso was slit from sternum to pubic bone. Over and over again, she sang the Christmas carol Silent Night to distract her from the pain. In the spring of 1971, when Tookie was 17, he was in a very different situation. He was a high school student from South Central Los Angeles. He had a fearsome reputation as a fighter and as a "general" of South Central's west side. And, around that time, Tookie, along with Raymond Lee Washington, created what would one day be a super-gang, the Crips. Back in the day when Tookie and Raymond founded the Crips, many of the young people of South Central Los Angeles were involved with small gangs. Those gang members roamed South Central taking property from anyone who feared them, including women and children. To protect the community, Tookie and Raymond organized the Crips. By 1979, the Crips had grown from a small Los Angeles gang to an organization with membership spread across the State of California. By this time, Crips had also become just like the gang members they had once sought to protect themselves from -- Crips had become gangbangers who terrorized their own neighborhoods.Soon the Crips lost both their leaders: in 1979, Raymond was murdered by a rival gang member, and, that same year, Tookie was arrested. He was charged with murdering four people. In 1981, Tookie was convicted of those crimes and placed on death row. In 1987, Tookie began what became a 6 1/2-year stay in solitary confinement. After two years there, Tookie began to look at himself. He focused on the choices he had made in his life and then committed himself to make a drastic change. The long, difficult process he undertook to rebuild his character put him in touch with his true spirit, his own humanity. Only then could Tookie finally begin to care about the many children, mothers, fathers and other family members of this country hurt by the Crips legacy and by its explosive growth. The gang is now in 42 states and on at least one other continent: South Africa. Youngsters in Soweto and other South African cities have formed the Crips copycat gangs Tookie greatly regrets the violent history of the Crips -- particularly how so many young black men have hurt each other -- and he wants to do what he can to stop it. The Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence book series for elementary-school-age children is the first fruit of his longing to prevent young people of every color from becoming gangbangers, from ending up in prison, crippled by bullets, or killed.Tookie is determined to make amends for having been a co-founder of the Crips. He intends to try in every way he can to guide those youngsters who have imitated him away from the road that led him to death row where he faces State execution. "Don't join a gang," he tells children in his books, writing from his San Quentin cell. "You won't find what you're looking for. All you will find is trouble, pain and sadness. I know. I did."

My Interests

Movies:

"Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story" won a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy. The movie was also honored by the MovieGuide awards, a program of the Christian Film and Television Commission, dedicated to encouraging higher media entertainment standards imbued with Christian and traditional family values.

Books:

Stanley "Tookie" Williams, cofounder of the Crips gang, has been living on death row at San Quentin State Prison since 1981. During that time, he has been confined to a cell no bigger than most bathrooms. Williams knows that prison is no place to call home. But as a child, all he knew of prison were exciting stories about "gladiator schools" – stories that made prison sound like the place to be.Now Williams speaks out about what it's really like in prison. Rather than being a place where men can prove their toughness, prison is where men sometimes go stir-crazy, or are even killed. Williams presents a riveting account of day-to-day life behind bars, from the humiliation of strip searches to being locked in solitary confinement in the Hole. He challenges you to think about how your life would change if you lived in prison.American Library Association Award Life in Prison was recently honored by the American Library Association as one of their "Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers." The Quick Picks group of books consists of outstanding books that stimulate teen readers who would otherwise be reluctant to read.Reactions "As a psychiatrist who has been deeply concerned about the plights of inner-city children, I am delighted to see this major contribution to the well-being of our youth. A subject that could easily be overdramatized is handled with great sensitivity to the feelings of the young reader. Parents should read this book and then give it to their children. Teachers should make it a part of the school curriculum."

Heroes:



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