Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. 保罗·科茨（PaulCoates）对他的儿子们来说是一位神秘的神：一位与黑豹队一起打滚的越战老兵，一位信奉自由爱情的老派纪律主义者和新时代信徒，一位在地下室创办了一家出版公司，致力于讲述非洲文明的真实历史的自学者。最重要的是，他是一位老谋深算的战术家，他的使命是带着他的儿子穿越市中心的浅滩，穿越崩溃的巴尔的摩文明，进入霍华德大学（HowardUniversity）的安全怀抱。霍华德大学（HowardUniversity）是他工作的地方，他的孩子可以免费上学。