Böcker av Sheldon McCormick

A cruel past, bourne of frustration, racism, abuse, womanizing, violence and hearbreaks, torments former high school and college champion sprinter, distance runner and fencing great Gilbert "e;Make Tracks"e; Courtney. He especially grieves the abortion of his unborn son by an embittered, vengeful ex-fiancee with a long grudge. The troubled Make Tracks channels his swirling, unbridled rage and emotions over her evil act into helping an inner-city community youth athletic center. Through his self-unaware charisma and leadership drawn from his past athletic successes, as a law student in college and a few tough years in a big city law firm, Make Tracks inspires his pupils with much-needed bravery, fortitude, confidence, self-worth and hope amid a rash of armed robberies and drive-by shootings in early 1990s South-Central Los Angeles.

A dissolutioned ex-civil rights activist, his car maker friend and ex-autoplant worker and a woman activist lawyer rescue an old discarded 1939 German staff car, christened "e;Runner Up"e;, rebuild it and enter the six wheeler in a grueling cross country auto race. They also race against racism, violence, a devisive foe and ridicule in 1979 South Los Angeles and Compton, California.

Ex-boxer, former inmate, and ex-hoodlum Lon Caplain was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery by a predominantly white judge and jury and served a term in harsh Booskaloo State Prison. The court later discovered that he did not commit the crime, and he was released. But this injustice, the cruel ghetto and prison life all loaded with racism and oppression, has left Lon an angry, embittered, frustrated, and mean black man. With raging hate in his heart and a reckless mindset, Lon is violent and crime-prone against the black community and geared to return to the brutal thuggery of his youth. This fate is derailed when he becomes "down with it" or "down" (which, in African-American ghetto slang, means "greatly inspired, ready, willing, bold and able with all his heart") to help some community activists and their youth center. Lon soon becomes their leader and finds life-saving humanity, self-worth, purpose, and redemption amid a police manhunt for a vicious wanted felon who brutalized and raped several girls and a massive destructive earthquake in 1982 south central Los Angeles.