You Gotta Believe!: Education + Hard Work - Drugs=the American Dream

The author, whose black father was Muhammed Ali's trainer and whose mother was a white Jewish woman, straddled two worlds in his troubled childhood in New York City. Raised partly in Harlem and partly in Brighton Beach by loving maternal grandparents, Brown observed his parents' estrangement, furthered by their addictions to drugs and alcohol. In this poignant account of his youth and personal success, (after being commissioned in the U.S. Navy, he became its only black attack-pilot), Brown speaks directly to the youth of the disadvantaged, urban subculture. Now a pilot for Federal Express, he has established The American Dream, a foundation ``to combat the use of illegal drugs and to confront the education issues that currently threaten our nation.'' Brown gives upbeat testimony to his belief that ``blacks can be anything in this country.'' (Mar.)