Manchild Dying in the Promised Land Strategies to Save Black Males

Intended for educators, parents, and social workers, this comprehensive analysis of contemporary America outlines the challenges faced by young black men today and provides more than 50 solutions to such problems. More than 40 years ago, Claude Brown publishedManchild in the Promised Land, his landmark autobiography of teen life on the mean streets of Harlem amidst poverty, violence, and drug addiction. Many of the social ills portrayed then remain surprisingly relevant today and nearly all of them have intensified. As a response to the classic text, these discussions cover miseducation and dropout rates, illiteracy, crime, drugs, unemployment, and fatherlessness, bringing each issue forward to the present day and into the future while incorporating more modern challenges, such as the threat of AIDS. Just as Claude Brown captured the zeitgeist of urban America in the 1950s, this important examination encapsulates the state of society for African American males today.

Sallie M. Cuffee, PhD, is a professor at Medgar Evers College in New York. She has written numerous articles for educational journals. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Myrlie Evers-Williams is an African American activist who was the first full-time chairperson of the NAACP, and the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers.