The Condemnation of Little B. » (None)

Elaine Brown, the former chairman of the Black Panther Party, is the author of A Taste of Power, currently being developed by Suzanne de Passe as an HBO movie. She lectures widely and lives in Atlanta.

Through the story of a thirteen-year-old black boy condemned to life in prison, Elaine Brown exposes the "New Age" racism that effectively condemns millions of poor African-Americans to a third world life. The story of "Little B" is riveting, a stunning example of the particular burden racism imposes on black youths. Most astonishing, almost all of the officials involved in bringing him to "justice" are black.

Michael Lewis was officially declared a ward of the state at age eleven, and then systematically ignored until his arrest for murder. Brown wondered how this boy could possibly have aroused so much public resentment, why he was being tried (and roundly condemned, labeled a "super-predator") in the press. Then she met Michael and began investigating his case on her own. Brown adeptly builds a convincing case that the prosecution railroaded Michael, looking for a quick, symbolic conviction. His innocence is almost incidental to the overwhelming evidence that the case was unfit for trial. Little B was convicted long before he came to court, and effectively sentenced years before, when the "safety net" allowed him to slip silently down. Brown cites studies and cases from all over America that reveal how much more likely youth of color are to be convicted of crimes and to serve long-even life-sentences, and how deeply the new black middle class is implicated in this devastating reality.

Publishers Weekly

In this damning, often excruciating account of racism in contemporary American society, Brown hangs her wide-ranging and well-documented argument on a specific instance of what she sees as emblematic of the problem: the prosecution and trial of 13-year-old African-American Michael Lewis for the 1997 murder of a black father of two in Atlanta....Brown tackles this story with the eyes and ears of an investigative reporter and spins a narrative that crackles with tension and enormous empathy.....Interwoven with this is Lewis's own story, an astute investigation into the media-created myth of the predatory black teen, an analysis of school voucher and faith-based community programs, a critique of the careers of Colin Powell and black scholar Henry Louis Gates, as well as the history of violence against African-Americans in the U.S. Packed with detail, strong arguments and flashes of brilliance, Brown's book is extraordinarily powerful.