Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was born in 1968, during a decade of change. My parents’ quest for equity helped to shape the woman that I am. They were high school sweethearts with lofty dreams, but their unexpected pregnancy forced them to travel down a more jagged path. #2 I was born in 1968 in Manhattan’s Beth Israel Hospital. My parents got married in 1968, and I was born fifteen days later. My mother dropped out of eleventh grade and went to live with my paternal grandmother in the South Bronx. #3 My grandmother, Nannie Mary, was an immigrant who had fled terror in one region of the country to seek safety in another. She and her family were among the millions of African Americans who escaped the bigotry and cruelty of the Jim Crow South to find opportunities elsewhere. #4 I adored my grandfather, Doc. He had a solid job working for the New York Department of Sanitation. He would lift and tote overflowing garbage cans all day, then bring his paycheck home to my grandmother every two weeks, setting aside a couple of dollars to slip to me and my cousins on the side.