STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Black Redemption

It's been almost two years since Stanley Tookie Williams was executed after being denied clemency by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the wake of his death, Touchstone Fireside is re-releasing Stanley Tookie Williams' memoir BLUE RAGE, BLACK REDEMPTION this November and hopes to shed additional light on Tookie's personal and public fight for redemption.

Part 1 of the book, entitled Blue Rage, chronicles Tookie's gang life as a co-founder of the Crips. During this time he committed hundreds of crimes and was eventually charged with the murder of four people. In 1981, Tookie was convicted and sent to Death Row for twenty years. Throughout his time in prison, he maintained his innocence for the crimes for which he was convicted.The second part of the book, Black Redemption, looks at the work Tookie completed and legacy he crafted behind bars--his books, awards, anti-gang initiatives, and Nobel Prize nominations.

Work that prompted Archbishop Desmond Tutu to say, "Tookie learned the hard way that belonging to a gang is not smart. I salute him for his courage and determination to overcome his circumstances."Tavis Smiley provided the book's foreword and in it, he writes that he was blessed to have had a personal encounter with Tookie. Smiley says that for those who will never be able to witness Tookie's courage, conviction, and commitment to prevent young people from taking the same path he did, we can experience some of that pain and passion in BLUE RAGE, BLACK REDEMPTION. Smiley believes that Tookie's death can reaffirm the importance of life for young men and women around the country.

BLUE RAGE, BLACK REDEMPTION, which was co-written with activist Barbara Becnel, is described as both frightening and enlightening, representative of Tookie's life. But it hopes to offer a testament that rage can be turned into redemption.

Sounds like a heavy read.