Money rock : a family's story of cocaine, race, and ambition in the new South / Pam Kelley.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : New Press, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: xiii, 282 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781620973271
- 1620973278
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | Biography | Platt, B. K29 | Available | 33111009259371 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"An ambitious look at the cost of urban gentrification."
-- Atlanta-Journal Constitution
"Kelley could have written a fine book about Charlotte's drug trade in the '80s and '90s, filled with shoot-outs and flashy jewelry. What she accomplishes with Money Rock , however, is far more laudable."
-- Charlotte Magazine
"Pam Kelley knows a good story when she sees one--and Money Rock is a hell of a story. . . like a New South version of The Wire ."
--Shelf Awareness
Meet Money Rock--young, charismatic, and Charlotte's flashiest coke dealer--in a riveting social history with echoes of Ghettoside and Random Family
Meet Money Rock. He's young. He's charismatic. He's generous, often to a fault. He's one of Charlotte's most successful cocaine dealers, and that's what first prompted veteran reporter Pam Kelley to craft this riveting social history--by turns action-packed, uplifting, and tragic--of a striving African American family, swept up and transformed by the 1980s cocaine epidemic.
The saga begins in 1963 when a budding civil rights activist named Carrie gives birth to Belton Lamont Platt, eventually known as Money Rock, in a newly integrated North Carolina hospital. Pam Kelley takes readers through a shootout that shocks the city, a botched FBI sting, and a trial with a judge known as "Maximum Bob." When the story concludes more than a half century later, Belton has redeemed himself. But three of his sons have met violent deaths and his oldest, fresh from prison, struggles to make a new life in a world where the odds are stacked against him.
This gripping tale, populated with characters both big-hearted and flawed, shows how social forces and public policies--racism, segregation, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration--help shape individual destinies. Money Rock is a deeply American story, one that will leave readers reflecting on the near impossibility of making lasting change, in our lives and as a society, until we reckon with the sins of our past.
Includes bibliographical references (pgs. 269-282).
Money rock and big Lou -- Showdown at Piedmont courts -- Carrie Platt and the American dream -- Candy kingpin -- The dealer's mother -- What went wrong with Piedmont courts? -- State of North Carolina versus money rock -- Convictions -- Heavy in the weight -- Going down -- United States versus money rock -- Coming of age in a world-class city -- The Christian inmate -- Sentencing a generation -- Lost boys -- The love of his life -- Freedom -- Trying to make a change -- Susan and Mashandia -- Homecoming -- Life on the outside -- Uprising -- Southside homes -- Epilogue -- Where they are now -- Acknowledgments -- Notes.
Meet Money Rock. He's young. He's charismatic. He's generous, often to a fault. He's one of Charlotte's most successful cocaine dealers, and that's what first prompted veteran reporter Pam Kelley to craft this riveting social history--by turns action-packed, uplifting, and tragic--of a striving African American family, swept up and transformed by the 1980s cocaine epidemic. The saga begins in 1963 when a budding civil rights activist named Carrie gives birth to Belton Lamont Platt, eventually known as Money Rock, in a newly integrated North Carolina hospital. Pam Kelley takes readers through a shootout that shocks the city, a botched FBI sting, and a trial with a judge known as "Maximum Bob." When the story concludes more than a half century later, Belton has redeemed himself. But three of his sons have met violent deaths and his oldest, fresh from prison, struggles to make a new life in a world where the odds are stacked against him. This gripping tale, populated with characters both big-hearted and flawed, shows how social forces and public policies--racism, segregation, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration--help shape individual destinies. Money Rock is a deeply American story, one that will leave readers reflecting on the near impossibility of making lasting change, in our lives and as a society, until we reckon with the sins of our past.