From the son of legendary civil rights organizer Robert P. Moses: a brilliant, unflinching memoir about becoming Black in America that interweaves voices from 3 generations of the Moses family

"Omo Moses has written an epic reaffirmation of Black diasporic life and a clarion call for justice. The White Peril is destined to be read and cherished.”
—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction recipient and author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao


In The White Peril, Omo Moses deftly interweaves his own life story with excerpts from both his great-grandfather's sermons and the writings of his father, the civil rights activist Bob Moses. The result is a powerful chorus of voices that spans 3 generations of an African American family, all shining a light on the Black experience, all calling fiercely for racial justice.

Omo was born in 1972 in Tanzania, where his parents had fled to escape targeted harassment by the US government. He did not encounter white supremacy until the family moved back to America when he was 4. Here, he learned what it meant to be Black. He came of age in a Black enclave of Cambridge, Massachusetts, became a passionate basketball player, lived in the shadow of his father’s Civil Rights work but did not feel like a part of it until his college basketball career came to an unceremonious end. Unsure what to do next, he took up his father’s offer to go with him to Mississippi and teach math to Algebra Project students. Omo didn’t know it yet, but it was among those young people that he would find his purpose.

This book is at once a coming-of-age story, a multigenerational family memoir, an epic father-son road trip, a searing account of the Black male experience, and a work that powerfully revives Rev. Moses’s demand for liberation.
Author’s Note

CHAPTER 1
In the Distance Between Us (I)

CHAPTER 2
The King of the Court

CHAPTER 3
Out of Africa

CHAPTER 4
Freedom Fighters

CHAPTER 5
Becoming Black

CHAPTER 6
Cookie and the Dust

CHAPTER 7
The Wild

CHAPTER 8
The MathLab

CHAPTER 9
American Heroes

CHAPTER 10
American Heroes, Continued

CHAPTER 11
Building Demand

CHAPTER 12
In the Distance Between Us (II)

CHAPTER 13
The King of the Port

CHAPTER 14
The White Peril

CHAPTER 15
Black Consciousness

CHAPTER 16
In the Distance Between Us (III)

CHAPTER 17
A Wave

EPILOGUE
The Young People’s Project

Acknowledgments
Notes
Omo Moses is an activist, educator, and mediamaker. He is the Founder/CEO of MathTalk, an education technology company that creates products that inspire adults and kids everywhere, particularly those in economically distressed communities, to enjoy math. Omo is a member of the MSNBC Grio 100, a Huffington Post Person of the Day, and a Barr Foundation Fellow.

About

From the son of legendary civil rights organizer Robert P. Moses: a brilliant, unflinching memoir about becoming Black in America that interweaves voices from 3 generations of the Moses family

"Omo Moses has written an epic reaffirmation of Black diasporic life and a clarion call for justice. The White Peril is destined to be read and cherished.”
—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction recipient and author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao


In The White Peril, Omo Moses deftly interweaves his own life story with excerpts from both his great-grandfather's sermons and the writings of his father, the civil rights activist Bob Moses. The result is a powerful chorus of voices that spans 3 generations of an African American family, all shining a light on the Black experience, all calling fiercely for racial justice.

Omo was born in 1972 in Tanzania, where his parents had fled to escape targeted harassment by the US government. He did not encounter white supremacy until the family moved back to America when he was 4. Here, he learned what it meant to be Black. He came of age in a Black enclave of Cambridge, Massachusetts, became a passionate basketball player, lived in the shadow of his father’s Civil Rights work but did not feel like a part of it until his college basketball career came to an unceremonious end. Unsure what to do next, he took up his father’s offer to go with him to Mississippi and teach math to Algebra Project students. Omo didn’t know it yet, but it was among those young people that he would find his purpose.

This book is at once a coming-of-age story, a multigenerational family memoir, an epic father-son road trip, a searing account of the Black male experience, and a work that powerfully revives Rev. Moses’s demand for liberation.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

CHAPTER 1
In the Distance Between Us (I)

CHAPTER 2
The King of the Court

CHAPTER 3
Out of Africa

CHAPTER 4
Freedom Fighters

CHAPTER 5
Becoming Black

CHAPTER 6
Cookie and the Dust

CHAPTER 7
The Wild

CHAPTER 8
The MathLab

CHAPTER 9
American Heroes

CHAPTER 10
American Heroes, Continued

CHAPTER 11
Building Demand

CHAPTER 12
In the Distance Between Us (II)

CHAPTER 13
The King of the Port

CHAPTER 14
The White Peril

CHAPTER 15
Black Consciousness

CHAPTER 16
In the Distance Between Us (III)

CHAPTER 17
A Wave

EPILOGUE
The Young People’s Project

Acknowledgments
Notes

Author

Omo Moses is an activist, educator, and mediamaker. He is the Founder/CEO of MathTalk, an education technology company that creates products that inspire adults and kids everywhere, particularly those in economically distressed communities, to enjoy math. Omo is a member of the MSNBC Grio 100, a Huffington Post Person of the Day, and a Barr Foundation Fellow.

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