Walter Wilson’s story is both representative and unique. He speaks for those whom
Malcolm X called “the victims of Democracy,” particularly black males growing up
in an urban context where society’s inequities and injustices are exacerbated by
the importation of drugs and its resulting criminality. On one level, Walter’s story
is a criminal narrative-it shows how a bright and promising young man succumbed to
the destructive social and spiritual forces that pervaded his world. He writes frankly
about the fact of racism and white supremacy-a fact as real in the upper echelons
of the drug world as it is in the world of politics and business. Walter’s story
is disturbing, a no-holds-barred confession of crime and criminality, pride and lust,
and brilliance in the service of sin.
Rev. Louis A. DeCaro, Jr., Ph.D.,
But his story is also a conversion epic, a confession that resonates with the same
blunt truth of the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Saint Augustine. Walter Wilson
is not just a black man struggling at the nadir of the post-Civil Rights era. He
is a fallen man in rebellion against God, who will not bend his knee in prayer or
acknowledge the claims of righteousness until encountered by the powerful word of
God. Like Augustine, Walter is saved by a voice compelling him to take up the Bible
and read. But instead of a shaded garden, the Bible he finds is lying on the floor
of a drug den.The writer’s voice is honest and his motivation is earnest. His story
chronicles a sojourn from the lowest levels of sin and rebellion to the rising road
of grace and freedom in Jesus Christ. “Join me as we take the cause of the Kingdom
of God to the next level,” Walter Wilson challenges. Read his story and take the
challenge.
Rev. Louis A. DeCaro, Jr., Ph.D., author of On the Side of My People: A Religious
Life of Malcolm X.
