Stanley Tookie Williams - Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir

Yo Tookie, Ive been bangin since I was eight. And I Really Wanted To Thank You For Settin Me Free, Cuz. I Mean You Were My Idol, And Now I See All Tha Pain Ive Caused People Who Never Deserved It, Over A Color And What It Stood For. Thanks To You, I Now See How Wrong I Was. I Needed To Get My Life Back, And You Gave It To Me.

I would like to share the effect your books, movie and website are having on the juveniles in my rehabilitation program.

• 1) Dictionaries are going off the shelf faster than I can buy them.
• 2) More books are borrowed from the library than before.
• 3) Juveniles are telling me and writing me that they are changing their ways, that they are working harder at school.

Here is a sample, from a sixteen-year-old juvenile serving time in an adult prison.

Thank you for writing me about Tookie Williams and sending me information about him. It encouraged me to pay attention to my school work while it lasts and get my mind focused on my weak points. My teacher tells me Im the fastest worker in class. My comprehension skills are above average.

Thank you for changing lives. You may be saying the same things I tell the inmates, but when you say something, it reaches so many more.

Juvenile Rehabilitation Officer, Florida

If the creator of the Crips can turn it around, why cant I? I know Im going to stumble on my path. Old habits are easy to come by and hard to break. But one day at a time. Your example saved my life. I thank God for you every day.

Mr. Tookie, wutup? I seen your movie and read your books. I really learned a lot. I see being a gangbanger is really lots of evilness. I had wanted to be one like that at first, because I seen how people was living large. But at the same time dying over crazy stuff. Like money, girls, cars and whose gang is bigger and better. I took the wrong path trying to fit in with others. But it didnt get me anywhere but in trouble and behind bars. None of them write me or come and see me, send me money or accept my phone calls or anything. I sit in my cell writing poems or drawing things. I wrote a poem in here on my birthday about being in here. I come from a place where people sat on their porch selling and smoking drugs in front of little kids and around babies. Thank you for showing me the light.

Tookie, your work has convinced six members of my family to not involve themselves in gang activities. Thank you for everything that youve done to help stop the violence that is tearing not only the Black community to pieces but other communities around the world.

Mr. Williams, I am an eighth-grade history teacher in California. I have read each of your books to over three hundred students. We were the first school group to ever speak to a death-row inmateyouover a speakerphone. Your books have had a positive effect on my students, many of whom would be classified as at risk.

Tookie, I was a member of a Los Angeles street gang. I would just like to let you know how big of an impact your story had on my life. Your works have made me realize the self-destruction that my involvement in a gang was causing. I love you for that. Thank you for saving my life.

i just want to let you know the impression you have made on my life. i have lost several friends to gang violence, one whom was particularly close to me. i wanted revenge, i wanted to join up with my friends and go after the people that killed her. then i stumbled upon your book life in prison. i read it, and looked at myself and decided that i did not want to do that. after all, if i had tracked them down and hurt them, or worse, what good would that do? id probably have ended up incarcerated, and it would not have brought my friend back. YOU are my HERO. thank you for all that you have done for the countless other teenagers all over the world who you have touched. you are in my prayers.

I used ta be a crip but I watched tha movie. It helped me a lot in seeing that bangin blue aint nuthin. I can do without the trouble. Tookie kept me from bein behind barz. Im stayin out of jail and keepin my head up all cuz of him. He deserves to live. He helped people live and stay off the streets.

hello tookie. i ran with the crips for thirteen yrs. after what you said from that day you changed my life for the best. i ran with the westside mafia. i have been shot and lived. no one can touch me but the words you said helped out for the best thank you. i am twenty-four yrs old. you saved my life. much love, your friend.

Redemption

Life in Prison (with Barbara Cottman Becnel)

Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence Book Series (with Barbara Cottman Becnel)

Gangs and the Abuse of Power

Gangs and Wanting to Belong

Gangs and Weapons

Gangs and Self-Esteem

Gangs and Violence

Gangs and Drugs

Gangs and Your Friends

Gangs and Your Neighborhood

Touchstone
A Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Copyright 2004 by Stanley Tookie Williams
Foreword copyright 2007 by Tavis Smiley
Epilogue copyright 2007 by Barbara Becnel

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

T OUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Stanley Tookie, 19532005.
Blue rage, black redemption: a memoir / Stanley Tookie Williams.
p. cm.
1. Williams, Stanley Tookie, 19532005. 2. Crips (Gang)Biography. 3. Gang membersCaliforniaLos AngelesBiography. I. Title.
HV6439.U7L7885 2007
364.1523092dc22
[B] 2007011583

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5430-1
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5430-0

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