Summary
Journalist Nathan McCall’s autobiography chronicles his childhood in an all-black working class neighborhood of Portsmouth, Virginia, his descent into violence and crime as a teenager, his prison education, conversion to Christianity and later Islam, and journey to become an award-winning journalist for the Wall Street Jounal. McCall leads his memoir with a snapshot of himself as a teenager in which he and a group of friends brutally beat a white boy who mistakenly rode his bicycle into “their” territory. He uses this incident to set the stage for a memoir which is a gritty, oftentimes harrowing narrative of what it means to be a black man in America, always perceived as the “other” and faced with the social pressures to be cruel. Race is never far from the reader’s consciousness as McCall narrates his childhood recollections of whiteness being held up as a model of all that is good, the isolation of attending an all-white school, the destruction of his neighborhood by the crack epidemic, and the easy descent into aggression against a society that had rejected him. This memoir, with its graphic depictions of crime, poverty and injustice, may be difficult to read, but it adds an important voice to discussions on race in America.
Critical Evaluation
Part of the power of this text is that McCall is writing about what it means to be a black man coming of age in America from the first person perspective. On the first page, he names a common fear in the American consciousness of the menacing black man--he implicitly addresses this fear and then identifies himself in that image as a perpetrator of violence. He does not make excuses. The author then steps back to contextualize and discuss the forces that have brought him to that moment--and many others--in which he commits harmful acts. Readers may wonder how someone with a criminal past could go on to become a successful journalist, one who does not deny or "clean up" his past. It is this honesty and unflinching look at a painful past that provides such power to McCall's narrative voice.
Reader’s Annotations
Can one grow to become a just man in an unjust society?
Information about the Author
According to the author’s official website, “Nathan McCall was born in Norfolk, Va. One of five children, he graduated from Manor High School in Portsmouth and attended Norfolk State University, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism in 1981. Nathan has worked as a reporter for The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star in Norfolk, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Washington Post, where he worked until taking a leave of absence to write his best selling autobiography, Makes Me Wanna Holler, A Young Black Man in America.
Makes Me Wanna Holler was a New York Times bestseller and won the Blackboard Book of the Year Award for 1995. In praise of Makes Me Wanna Holler, noted scholar Henry Louis Gates wrote, “Sooner of later every generation must find its voice. It may be that ours belongs to Nathan McCall, whose memoir is…a stirring tale of transformation. He is a mesmerizing storyteller.”...McCall serves as a senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.”
Genre
Memoir/Non-fiction
Curriculum Ties
History-Civil rights era, desegregation in the US
Booktalking Ideas
Read aloud a paragraph from the first two pages, the description of the white boy getting jumped by McCall and his friends. Ask, "If anyone wonders, '“Why?” and “What else happened in this man’s life?”', they might consider reading this book.
Reading Level/ Interest Age
16+
Challenge Issues
This work could be challenged due to its graphic depictions of violence. If the book were challenged, I would turn to ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.
Why Included?
This is an important narrative about race in America. It was a transformative read for me many years ago, and I believe would be a compelling read for teenagers who want to grapple with questions of societal injustice.
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