‘Coming Of Age in the Other America’

FEATURING STEFANIE DELUCA – April 12 marks the first anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray, a young African American man in Baltimore, Maryland, who was brutally arrested by police and died in custody. Gray’s death sparked weeks of rioting in what became known as the Baltimore uprising. Several officers are currently on trial for Gray’s death.

Baltimore is marked by its proximity to power – it is only 40 miles from the nation’s capital – and its pockets of extreme poverty, concentrated in African American neighborhoods. Studying this in a newly published book is my guest Stefanie DeLuca, associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She and her co-authors Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Kathryn Edin, spent more than ten years interviewing and researching 150 black Baltimore youth who were born in the late 1980s and early 1990s and who lived in the city’s public housing projects.

Stefanie DeLuca is associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, lead author of the book, Coming of Age in the Other America.