Street Soldier

by Joseph Marshall Jr.

As a public school teacher, Joe Marshall grew sick and tired of watching his most promising students fall prey to the lure of gangs, drugs, and crime, and end up either dead or in prison.  Finding that neither the justice nor school system seemed willing even to try to address the underlying problems--to give the kids the kind of information and assistance they really needed--he leapfrogged right over the system and co-founded the Omega Boys Club, based upon the belief that young people of the inner city want a way out of the life they're in, but just don't know how to get out.  Since the club's inception in 1987, with a handful of kids in a community center basement, he and his small army of street soldiers have already helped 600 kids out of gang-banging and drug-dealing, and pushed, tutored, driven and even funded 140 inner-city kids into colleges around the country.

Four years ago, to direct kids at risk to the Boys Club, he started a weekly radio call-in program called "Street Soldiers" that is now broadcast throughout California to an audience of over 200,000.  His callers ask tough questions about gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy, and the multiple pressures of life in the inner city today.  "Street Soldiers" not only provides callers with a lifeline and listeners with a practical resource for hope, but has repeatedly averted gang warfare and stopped "payback" violence before they occurred.

Street Soldier is the story of Joe Marshall's success and, as virtually the only good news coming out of the inner city today, it is incumbent upon all of us--citizens, parents, legislators, and teachers--to listen.  From Marshall's own college days in the turbulent sixties and his early years as an idealistic young teacher, the book moves to the heartbreaking lessons that compelled him to do something.   Street Soldier then takes readers through the day-by-day trials and tribulations of his efforts in the `hood, searching for effective ways to convince gun-toting crack dealers and gang members to take pride in their race, take responsibility for their actions, and take charge of their lives.  Along the way the book goes inside the minds and lives of a handful of the kids who transform themselves in the mast dramatic way possible--and a few who sadly cannot.  In the end, Street Soldier is a call to each of us to help shape the future of this generation at risk, to help our children grow strong--to be street soldiers in our own communities.

Filled with tense confrontations and joyous celebrations, Street Soldier is an uplifting story by and about one man who makes a difference--and the cure his story may well provide for the cancer eating at our nation today.

305 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in high school and was inspired by Joe Marshall's work to bring hope and opportunity to young men in southeastern neighborhoods of San Francisco. A former math teacher, Mr. Marshall realized that he wasn't making the difference he wanted to when a former student told him that he was the best student the young man had ever had, yet the student was high on crack. Mr. Marshall and Jack Jacqua founded the Omega Boys Club (www.street-soldiers.org) to keep young men alive and free, eventually helping 140 youth get to college and hundreds more rise above a culture of violence. Mr. Marshall also started a radio show on Sunday nights on KMEL and trainings for other youth workers. I realize now that this book introduced me to youth work and many themes of the nonprofit sector.

[Bert Hui · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this very quick page-turner around 1999 or so after listening to the author on the late-night call-in radio show Street Soldiers based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I credit this book as having a significant impact on who I am today.

Mr. Marshall writes about his experiences in trying to save African-American youth caught up in gang culture and his attempts to show them there is a better way of life.

Granted, the prevalence of gang culture isn't as strong (some might say non existent) where I live now outside of the Bay Area, but the memoir highlights that those in need sometimes just need a helping hand that doesn't give up before they can help themselves. Despite its age, readers of this memoir will learn that empathy combined with "tough love" can work miracles.

[Lil Akili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Street Soldier
Street Soldier by Joseph Marshall Jr. is about Joe marshall, a teacher at a public school who is tired of seeing his top students as well as other students get pulled into the gang and drug life. He was disturbed by the fact that the justice system or the school system would even address that this is happening in the area. He grew so tired of seeing this that he made an organization called the omega boys club. The omega boys club believed that the young children who were being pulled into the violence and gang life were wanting a way to get out of their circumstances, that’s why they were acting out. This book is filled with conflict and joyous celebration. What type of conflict? How much joy? Read and find out.

[Adrenia Cotton]

2:04- 2:52' 9:11-9:45' 7:57-8:32
i Loved how Joseph Marshall JR. and Lonnie Wheeler started the book talking about how they eas at the award place and they got an award for starting the Omega Boys Club. He was surpised that many famous people was clapping there hand because they were proud that he have did many things for the communitity. i like that Marshall is trying to help his communitiy because he is starting to see that the future for young people is going to be had for people to live in. Marshall aLready see how the other people in the younger age is going to suffer. i would like to compelete this book so i could see his look over life.