Revolutionary Threads by Bobby Sullivan

Author:Bobby Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2018-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Today, West End Park is lined by manicured yards and white-trimmed bungalows painted lemon yellow, teal and taupe. Boys shoot hoops on a covered basketball court, and women in bright headscarves gather on the lawn across the street. All signs point toward prosperity.

It was a different scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those gathered in the park were not there for play but to sell services and wares: sex, and later, crack rock.

Within a decade the drugs and prostitutes began to disappear. Al-Amin’s followers like to credit him with the street sweeping, but no one can say for sure that he was creating the resurgence of West End. He did join the local mosque and become its prayer leader. Muslim families from Boston, Philadelphia and New York relocated to West End to be closer to the mosque and its charismatic leader.

“We developed West End at the height of the crack epidemic, enforced the park’s curfew to keep out the bad elements,” says Ali, now heading the West End mosque in Al-Amin’s absence. “We cleaned it up by having a visible presence of [Muslim] men in this neighborhood.”[153]

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