Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man credited with rescuing three women from a decade of captivity under Ariel Castro’s roof, has signed a book deal, despite his previous lack of interest in attention and publicity, a publishing company announced Sunday. Cleveland publishing house Gray & Co. signed the deal for a memoir by Ramsey on Thursday, the publisher said in a statement.
Ramsey, 44, garnered national attention after his unfiltered response to media attention he received for breaking down his next door neighbor’s door to rescue Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Berry’s daughter from a house where they had been imprisoned by their kidnapper for about 10 years.
Ramsey’s unfiltered accounts during television interviews of the day he rescued the women in May were remixed, posted on YouTube and quoted incessantly by Twitter users. “What you saw on TV doesn’t even begin to tell the story,” Ramsey said. “Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms,” Ramsey told a reporter shortly after the ordeal.
Randy Nyerges, who has co-written a book with former Cleveland Browns defensive back Hanford Dixon and served as a Senate speechwriter, will coauthor the book with Ramsey. “Charles says outrageous things, but what a story he has,” Nyerges said, according to Gray and Co.’s announcement. Ramsey’s resistance to the label of “hero” and refusal of giveaways made Americans even fonder of the man who may have cursed a few too many times while contacting the police about his discovery but acted bravely during the traumatic situation.
Ramsey’s memoir — which is not yet titled — will describe the rescue, the short time Ramsey spent living next door to atrocities he was unaware of and the instant fame that ensued after his heroic actions, Gray and Co.’s release said. Ramsey is also expected to detail his earlier years, including time he spent in prison, according to Gray and Co. Ramsey and Nyerges have been collaborating on the book since the beginning of December, and it is slated to be published in spring 2014, which is when a memoir by Knight is also scheduled to be released.
Berry and DeJesus are also set to document their harrowing experiences in a book due out in 2015.
Castro was sentenced Aug. 1 to life plus 1,000 years. He hanged himself inside his cell on Sept. 3.
article by Elisha Fieldstadt via usnews.nbcnews.com
LOS ANGELES — The seven-day festival of Kwanzaa will begin December 26. It is a time when African Americans highlight their heritage.
Nearly 35% of black fathers who lived with their young children said they read to them daily, compared with 30% of white dads and 22% of Latino dads. The report was based on a federal survey that included more than 3,900 fathers between 2006 and 2010 — a trove of data seen as the gold standard for studying fatherhood in the United States. In many cases, the differences between black fathers and those of other races were not statistically significant, researchers said.
The findings echo earlier studies that counter simple stereotypes characterizing black fathers as missing in action. When it comes to fathers who live with their kids, “blacks look a lot like everyone else,” said Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center who has previously studied the topic. And in light of the negative stereotypes about black fathers, “that is a story in itself.”
In Watts, Bryan August-Jones battles the stereotype daily. Every weekday, he wakes his three sons before sunrise, gets them dressed, then ferries them to the baby sitter and to school. On weekends, he takes them bicycling or to Red Lobster, which his youngest son — “a little fancy guy” — prefers over McDonalds. His Latina mother-in-law and her family think black men cannot be good fathers, but “I prove them wrong all the time,” August-Jones said.
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the 
