Title: Convicted in the womb
First published: 1996
Description: Once Carl Upchurch was an elementary-school dropout fighting for survival on the streets of South Philadelphia, a gang member wedded to a life of violence, a bank robber facing a future in federal penitentiaries. Now he is a respected community organizer with degrees in literature and psychology, and one of the most compelling and visionary leaders of the civil rights movement.

This is his story - a timely, hard-hitting look at the reality of urban crime, gang warfare, and racial injustice from one who knows firsthand what it's like to be... Convicted in the Womb.

. Not since The Autobiography of Malcolm X has there been such a moving account of conversion from criminal violence to enlightened activism. Beginning with a copy of Shakespeare's sonnets he found propping up a table in his jail cell, Carl Upchurch educated himself, reading the classics, philosophy, religion, and finally African American literature and politics.

Since then, Carl Upchurch has dedicated his life to empowering inner-city youth to resist the temptations of lawlessness, and training community leaders to establish and run neighborhood self-help groups. His grassroots activism culminated in 1993, when he organized the first national gang summit, which peacefully brought together the country's most notorious gangs.

Recognized by the President of the United States for its historic significance, the summit instantly catapulted Carl Upchurch into the national spotlight...and into direct conflict with other African American civil rights leaders. In chapters sure to spark new debate, Upchurch provides a scathing critique of the established civil rights movement and argues that it's time for a new generation of leaders, drawn from the masses, not the elite.

Eschewing political correctness and cynical big-party politics, he offers his own solutions to the critical problems facing urban America, and outlines a visionary manifesto to overcome this country's political, economic, and athletic apartheid.
Subjects: African American leadership, African Americans, Biography, Social conditions, Peace, Prisoners, biography, African americans, biography
People: Carl Upchurch
Time periods: 1975-
LC classification: E185.97.U63 A3 1996