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Ta-Nehisi Coates (right) chats with Widener freshmen about writing in a small group discussion prior to his lecture.
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Growing up in a city plagued by crack cocaine and violence, in a home without air conditioning or a VCR, and in a family that didn’t celebrate Christmas and fasted on Thanksgiving, Ta-Nehisi Coates also has pleasant memories of his childhood in Baltimore in the 1980s.
“No matter how hard you came up, it doesn’t mean that you never laughed,” Coates told the Alumni Auditorium audience of Widener freshmen who read his memoir, The Beautiful Struggle, as part of the Common Freshman Experience. “One of the great pleasures of writing this book was to go and live as a child again.”
A senior editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues, Coates read passages from his book, transporting the audience back to the mean streets of West Baltimore circa 1985, and provided further insight into to the poverty and family influences that help shape the man he is today.
Though both of his parents were raised in poverty, “there was no real preparation for the kind of violence we were exposed to,” Coates said. He learned the language of the streets from his older brother, Big Bill, “because that’s the language you needed to survive.” He inherited his passion for learning and reading from his parents, especially his father, Paul, a Vietnam veteran who rolled with the Black Panthers.
He made his children read; books were everywhere in the house. The radio was tuned to NPR, and he would engage his children in discussion and debate about the topics in the news. Coates knew his situation was different than other children in his neighborhood.
“He (Paul) knew things and he was deeply, deeply wise,” Coates said. “When you grow up in a community where people don’t have parents, you lose wisdom. When I left my father’s house years later, I realized what I had gotten, and just how lucky I was.”
Submitted by Dan Hanson, Director of Public Relations Widener University
Wow! I can't imagine growing up in an environment like that. I am so thankful that when and where I grew up in South GA, my parents were the fortunate ones in the neighborhood. We may have been poor but I didn't know it because we were so much better off than most of the other folk. My dad was a pastor in later years and my mom was a dietitian at the local school. I thank God for parents who demanded the three of us to be the best we could be at all times.
ReplyDeleteMost of us have a story to tell and not very many of us have the same story, but it is our story and it need to be told.
By the way, I grew up in the 40's and 50's In South GA. Life was good. No gangs, no drugs, yes there was alcohol a few confutations occasionally but no drive by shootings because someone took your girl friend.
My dad was always the person to go to in the community for whatever your need was. As long as I can remember he had a car and a pickup truck. A good man, a good dad, my hero, Rev Leroy Warren.
Because of my dad's leadership qualities I became the first Black mayor in the county and in the city. I am finishing up my second term in office and is still the only Black mayor in the county.
LW