Summary

Coates stresses that Paul wasn’t a violent man. He had an old relic of a gun from his Panther days. He grew a small vegetable garden in the backyard. He had elitist ways, such as his love of foreign films. Coates recalls that Paul wanted him to get the higher grades so he could realize his potential. He also wanted Ta-Nehisi to leave school with Knowledge and Consciousness and the sense to use both appropriately. Coates recalls how he was the kind of kid who sleepwalked through childhood – losing everything and paying attention to little. Coates writes that when a kid threw his house keys in the trash, Paul lost it. He tried to impress upon his son, with a beating, that his careless behavior could cost him his life one day.

Coates writes that Paul had a tough childhood, too. He had...