About this item
A kaleidoscopic account of five days in the life of a city on the edge, told through eight characters on the front lines of the uprising that overtook Baltimore and riveted the world, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an "illegal knife" in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated "roughly" as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never recover. In the wake of a long history of police abuse in Baltimore, this killing felt like the final straw - it led to a week of protests, then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge and caught the nation's attention. Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar, bestselling author, decorated combat veteran, former White House fellow, and CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty nonprofits in the nation. While attending Gray's funeral, he saw every stratum of the city come together: grieving mothers, members of the city's wealthy elite, activists, and the long-suffering citizens of Baltimore - all looking to comfort one another, but also looking for answers. He knew that when they left the church, these factions would spread out to their own corners, but that the answers they were all looking for could be found only in the city as a whole. Moore - along with journalist Erica Green - tells the story of the Baltimore uprising both through his own observations and through the eyes of other Baltimoreans: Partee, a conflicted black captain of the Baltimore Police Department; Jenny, a young white public defender who's drawn into the violent center of the uprising herself; Tawanda, a young black woman who'd spent a lonely year protesting the killing of her own brother by police; and John Angelos, scion of the city's most powerful family and executive vice president of the Baltimore Orioles, who had to make choices of conscience he'd never before confronted. Each shifting point of view contributes to an engrossing, cacophonous account of one of the most consequential moments in our recent history, which is also an essential cri de coeur about the deeper causes of the violence and the small seeds of hope planted in its aftermath.
About the Author
Wes Moore is an Army combat veteran, social entrepreneur, and national bestselling author. His first book, The Other Wes Moore, became an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller as a story that conveys the importance of individual decisions alongside community support.
Wes graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Valley Forge Military College and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University. He completed an MLitt in International Relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Wes served as a paratrooper among the elite 82nd Airborne Division in the United States Army and retired as a Captain after having participated in a combat tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Wes has been featured by USA Today, TIME Magazine, People Magazine, "Meet the Press," "The Colbert Report", "The View," MSNBC, and NPR, among many others. He is a consistent news contributor to programs such as Morning Joe, Hardball with Chris Matthew, NOW with Alex Wagner, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and many others. He has also hosted programs such as "Beyond Belief" on the Oprah Winfrey Network, as well as two shows on PBS: "American Graduate Day 2014" and "Coming Back with Wes Moore", for which he was the Executive Producer.
Today, Wes Moore's mission is to help young people succeed and make the right choices through education and awareness alongside the support of their parents, teachers, and mentors. Moore is the Founder and CEO of BridgeEdU, an innovative college platform that addresses the college completion and job placement crisis. BridgeEdU reinvents the freshman year in a way that engages students in real-world internships and service-learning opportunities in addition to core academic classes.
Wes is also the author of a new book, The Work, which was released in January 2015. The Work picks up where The Other Wes Moore left off and follows Wes's journey to the point where he discovered meaning in his work through service. While detailing his own path to purpose, The Work also profiles a dozen other inspiring people who have found their mission by uplifting their communities.
Currently, Wes lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children.
