Table of Contents - Mrs. Sawyer's English Class

1 Table of Contents Title PageCopyright PageIntroduction CHAPTER ONE - YOU DON T HAVE TO CUT MY FOOT OFF, DO YOU? CHAPTER TWO - OH, MAN, YOU RE IN TROUBLE AGAIN! CHAPTER THREE - ISN T THAT SCHOOL IN THE GHETTO? CHAPTER FOUR - WE RE GONNA JACK US SOME ICEES FROM JACK S! CHAPTER FIVE - HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED? CHAPTER SIX - ARE YOU GODZILLA OR KING KONG? CHAPTER SEVEN - YEAH, MAN. THEY SAY THE DRIVER S DEAD. CHAPTER EIGHT - I DON T EVEN KNOW ANYBODY WHO WENT TO COLLEGE. CHAPTER NINE - YOU KIDS ARE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED. CHAPTER TEN - WHAT S UP WITH THAT? YOU THINK YOU BETTER THAN US? CHAPTER ELEVEN - A STICKY WEB OF BRIGHT PINK SILLY STRING ACROSS THE ..CHAPTER TWELVE - I THINK WE COULD ALL DO THIS---THE THREE OF US---TOGETHER! CHAPTER THIRTEEN - IF HE DIES, YOU GET CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER.

2 CHAPTER FOURTEEN - HOW DO YOU PLEAD? THE JUDGE ASKED. GUILTY, YOURHONOR. CHAPTER FIFTEEN - NOT ONLY HAD THEIR SONS SURVIVED, BUT THEY WEREHEADING TO COLLEGE. CHAPTER SIXTEEN - IT FEELS GOOD, MAN. IT S LIKE DOING PUSH-UPS WITH MYBRAIN! CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - THE BOY S NECK BENT IN AN ODD WAY, AND HIS BODY FELLLIMP. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - YO, YO, YO! CHECK IT OUT! CHECK IT OUT! CHAPTER NINETEEN - FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE HIGH SCHOOL, THE THREE OF US ..CHAPTER TWENTY - DRIVING WHILE BLACK CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA FAIL IN ORDER TO SUCCEED. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - TO FRIENDS CONCLUSIONSHOUT-OUTS!HERE S WHAT YOUNG-ADULT READERS HAVE WRITTEN TO SAMPSON, RAMECK, ANDGEORGE ..DUTTON CHILDREN S BOOKSA DIVISION OF PENGUIN YOUNG READERS group PUBLISHED BY THE PENGUIN group Penguin group (USA) Inc.

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4 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Text and photographs copyright 2005 by The Three Doctors LLCAll rights reserved. eISBN : 978-1-440-69590-21. Davis, Sampson. 2. Jenkins, George, 1973- 3. Hunt, Rameck. 4. Youth with social disabilities New Jersey Newark Biography Juvenile literature. 5. African American youth New Jersey Newark Biography Juvenile literature. 6. African American physicians New Jersey Newark Biography Juvenile literature. 7. Friendship Juvenile literature. 8. Success Juvenile literature. I. Jenkins, George, 1973- II. Hunt, Rameck. III. Title..92 2 dc22 2004023210 Published in the United States by Dutton Children s Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers group 345 Hudson Street, New York,New York 10014 , I will miss you; you are a great man!

5 SAMPSON DAVIS, Ellen Bradley Ma, this one s for you too! RAMECK HUNT, For Annette and Jackie. There is always hope. I believe in you. SHARON DRAPERINTRODUCTIONTHIS IS A TRUE STORY. We are real people. We started out as kids in the toughest neighborhoodsof Newark, New Jersey, and today we are doctors. We had to fight drugs and crime and had to overcome obstacles like poverty and apathy and violence in our community. Individuallywe probably would not have succeeded, but together, we were able to make it through high school,college, and medical are Dr. Rameck Hunt, Dr. Sampson Davis, and Dr. George Jenkins. We call ourselves TheThree Doctors. We now work in the same community where we grew up, trying to help the people inour never thought our story was anything special.

6 It wasn t until after we finished medical schoolthat the public showed us what a remarkable journey we had made. In retrospect, it s probably bestthat it happened that way. If we had thought about how daunting the task was that we wereundertaking, we probably never would have even these pages we want to show the power of friendship and of positive peer pressure. We alsowant to show the necessity for strong role models in the lives of young people. The three of ussuffered because we didn t have many, and we hope to offer young people today three strong, positiverole models they can depend t get us wrong we made lots of mistakes. We often made foolish decisions, sometimes gotinvolved in dangerous situations, and frequently suffered the consequences of impulsive behavior.

7 Butwe weren t bad kids just kids in need of focus and want to show that obstacles can be overcome and how struggles can lead to success. We hopethat by reading our story, young people can avoid some of the mistakes we made and perhaps can beinspired to reach for dreams of their of the names of the real people who lived and died in our neighborhoods have been changedin this book to protect their privacy. But their stories are important and need to be hope that our story will add a beacon of hope to young people in particular and to society ingeneral. Anyone with a dream can succeed and with that success return to where it all started andmake the world just a little ONE YOU DON T HAVE TO CUT MY FOOT OFF, DO YOU? SAMPSON, AGE 6 I m going with you, six-year-old Sampson Davis boldly told his big brother,Andre.

8 Sampson, with honey-gold skin; large eyes with long lashes; and dark, curly hair, stood withhis feet spread apart and his arms folded across his chest, daring his brother to challenge him. He hadlearned early to look and act tough, especially with the older boys his brother hung around with. No, man. You too little. You be crampin my style, Andre replied. I don t care. I m goin anyway. Besides, Moms said you gotta watch me today, Sampson said,knowing that when their mother said something, she meant business. Both boys knew better than todisobey their mother. She did her best to keep her children in line and had been known to use bothbroom and belt on them when they broke her also knew his brother hated for him to tag along with the bigger boys.

9 Andre was ten andhad his own set of friends from the neighborhood. Well, just keep your mouth shut, and don t do nothin stupid, Andre warned. Me and my boys gotbusiness to take care of. He swaggered a little, making sure his little brother noticed. Sampsongrinned and ran quickly to join them on the and Andre and his friends liked to pretend to be tough, but not all of it was learned early in the area around the Dayton Street Projects that walking with an air of being incontrol was often necessary for survival. You hear Peewee got beat up last night? Andre asked his friend Leslie as they walked down thestreet. Yeah, man, he had it comin to him. You don t take money from the Bomb and not get tightened s lucky he ain t dead. Sampson listened carefully, saying nothing, but taking it all in confident he could handle theknowledge of activities of boys much older than he.

10 He didn t think it was unusual at all to bediscussing fights and drug deals and muggings. That s just how the world around him was no alternative to compare it to. His stomach sometimes tightened with a mixture of fearand excitement, but he didn t let the older boys know group walked down Dayton Street in Newark, New Jersey, that summer afternoon, laughing,cussing, and spitting on the sidewalk just to show this little bit of turf belonged to them. They had noparticular destination in mind and ended up in a small, grassy park not far from the projects. AsSampson walked with the older boys, he gloried in the warmth of the lazy afternoon sun. Look at how they keep this place, Andre said with disgust, his voice full of fifth-grade park was filled with broken glass, balled-up potato-chip bags, beer bottles, and other bits oftrash.