American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears

by Farah Stockman

“Don’t let me catch you over there,” Wally’s father warned. Wally’s parents did everything in their power to keep their sons away from that world. They sent them to a private Christian academy that instilled biblical values. When the boys weren’t in school, they were at the Barnes United Methodist Church, where Wally wore the white robes of an acolyte and carried the cross into the sanctuary ahead of the pastor. The only place the Hall boys were allowed to sleep overnight was Uncle Hulan’s house, five blocks away. In the summertime, Wally’s father and Uncle Hulan sent their children down to Georgia to stay with Grandma and Granddaddy Hall. The boys begged to play audiotapes on the drive down. If Wally’s father heard a swear in the music, he ejected the tape and tossed it out the car window. But none of it mattered once Wally hit puberty. For his freshman year of high school, he transferred to a public school. He rode the bus with a girl from the neighborhood. A few months later, she came up pregnant.

Black boys more likely to be lower social class than parents