The book “Rosa Lee” by Leon Dash touched me very deeply. I was shocked by how much adversity and affliction she had to bear by slipping deeper and deeper into the vicious circle of drugs, prostitution and crime.

Rosa Lee`s parents were black rural share croppers from the South who moved to Washington D.C. in order to escape racial oppression, economic exploitation and segregation and to find a better life and work there.

But once in the city they faced barriers in housing, education and employment.

During her childhood, Rosa Lee was given a hard time by the strong discipline of her mother Rosetta, which was usual for southern rural families during this time. Sometimes her mother would beat her up and slap her right in the face. She also made Rosa Lee responsible for all the household chores to prepare her for a life as a domestic worker. But Rosa Lee hated the idea of cleaning up the houses of white families.

Rosa Lee`s father was an alcoholic and there were times when young Roas Lee had to pick him up drunk from a bar and he would lean on her all the way home.

When he was drunk, her father beat her mother and her mother would beat her after that, so violence was just

I think a good ecucation is a very fundamental aspect and an important goal to achieve when you live in poverty.

But even when they went to school, they faced racism and were exposed to teachers who did not care about them. One day, when Rosa Lee was in elementary school, she followed a boy up to another classroom and experienced a whole different way of teaching.

One time even for the possibility to cook, since Rosa Lee was not able to pay the bill for electricity and got therefore cut off.

By providing understanding teachers who teach properly to “ghetto schools” it might be possible for those kids to escape the vicious circle and move into a world free from drugs and crime.

One time, Rosa Lee received a big check and spent $ 142 of it to buy food. Later on, she discovered that Richard sold the food to buy crack with it.

“was very shy and talked with a stammer” (Dash, 134). But finally one of his friends also introduced him to heroin. In the end, almost all of the familiy members and later on even the grandchildren are addicted to drugs. They often did drugs together, using the same needles and thus passing HIV from one person to another.

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