Money rock : a family's story of cocaine, race, and ambition in the new South / Pam Kelley.
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.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781620973271
- ISBN: 1620973278
- Physical Description: xiii, 282 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
- Publisher: New York : New Press, 2018.
- Copyright: ©2018
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pgs. 269-282). |
Formatted Contents Note: | 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. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Platt, Belton Lamont. Drug dealers > North Carolina > Biography. Criminals > North Carolina > Biography. Discrimination in criminal justice administration > North Carolina. North Carolina. |
Genre: | Nonfiction. |
Available copies
- 3 of 3 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at North Kansas City.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Kansas City Public Library | 364.13365 KELLEY 2018 (Text) | 0001002269569 | Nonfiction | Available | - |