The crack epidemic refers to the surge of crack houses and crack cocaine use in major cities in the United States between 1984 and 1990. Fallout from the crack epidemic included a huge surge in addiction, homelessness, murder, theft, robbery, gang warfare, and long-term imprisonment. The first effects of the epidemic started in the early [...]
Posted on February 11th, 2010 in Books, Education, Encouragement, Engagement-Debate, Our Communities
Rosa Lee Cunningham, could not read. Her daughter Patty, could not read. She never encouraged her children to even attend school, let alone care what grades they received. Somehow, the whole “get an education” thing, just never resonated. There was a time she saw a glimmer of what she could learn as a student herself, [...]
Posted on February 09th, 2010 in Books, Education, Engagement-Debate, Enlightenment, Our Communities
Stealing Became A Way Of Life Rosa Lee Cunningham guided her 10-year-old grandson through the narrow aisles of the Oxon Hill thrift shop, past the crowded racks of secondhand pants and shirts, stopping finally at the row of children’s jackets and winter coats. The boy picked out a mock flight jacket, with a big number [...]
Posted on February 08th, 2010 in Books, Education, Empowerment, Engagement-Debate, Our Communities, Popular Culture
On Feb 18th at 8pm, WeeSeeYou will host a chat with author Leon Dash to discuss his Pulitizer prize winning series “Rosa Lee’s Story”. In preparation for our chat, we invite all of our posters to read (or read again) the saga of Rosa Lee Cunningham (click the banner at the top of the page [...]
Posted on January 20th, 2010 in Books, Education, Encouragement, Engagement-Debate, Enlightenment, Our Communities, Politics
Rosa Lee & Me: What One Family Told Me — and America — About the Urban Crisis Excerpt: For four intense years, I followed Rosa Lee Cunningham, her children and five of her estimated 32 grandchildren. I became absorbed by Rosa Lee’s story — and deeply troubled. I also realized that the series that followed [...]
A Life Comes Full Circle, and Rosa Lee Faces Loss Excerpt: It is early evening on Saturday, Dec. 5, 1992. I call Rosa Lee Cunningham’s room at Greater Southeast Community Hospital, where she’s recuperating from double pneumonia. The last time we talked, she was resting comfortably after a scary night in the emergency room. [...]
A Grandson’s Problems Starts Early CHAPTER TWO: How He Grew Up He was born when Patty was 14. By the time he was 2, his mother was using heroin. Some days, she says, she was so high that she has a hard time remembering how she performed even the simplest tasks — changing his diaper, feeding [...]
A Daughter Travels The Same Troubled Path Excerpt: The Unbreakable Bond By the time Patty was born in January 1958, Rosa Lee already had five children, all boys. Rosa Lee named her Donna, but no one has ever called her that. When she was little, she was known as “Papoose,” because Rosa Lee thought the [...]
Posted on December 17th, 2009 in Books, Education, Encouragement, Engagement-Debate, Enlightenment, Our Communities
Rosa Lee and son Alvin Two Sons Who Avoided The Traps Excerpt: Eric Wright hung up the telephone in his Prince George’s County apartment and cursed out loud. He couldn’t decide what angered him more — that his 33-year-old brother Ducky was badgering his mother again for money to buy crack cocaine or that his [...]
Rosa Lee hugs Ducky and keeps him warm as she waits for her bus. Wrestling With Recovery In A Changing Drug Culture Excerpt: A crowd is milling around the bank of aluminum mailboxes that sits on a grassy island outside Rosa Lee Cunningham’s apartment building. The midday sun is warm on this spring day in [...]
