cover image Mothers in Charge: Faces of Courage

Mothers in Charge: Faces of Courage

. Harrowood Books, $0 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-915180-43-1

A book with a mission (profits going to the organization Mothers in Charge), this is a photo essay-style condemnation of violence, supplemented by the words of Philadelphia mothers who have lost children in random acts. Some of the victims were innocent, some on the wrong track, but all had mothers who deal with their grief every day. Dorothy Johnson-Speight's son was shot eight times over a parking space; watching the television news one night, she saw Ruth Donnelly pleading for information in the murder of her own son. The story sounded familiar to Dorothy, who founded Mothers in Charge in 2003, and when she went to meet Ruth they discovered that their sons were killed by the same man (who is now serving two life sentences). These ordinary women, whose lives have been forever altered, have bravely chosen to help others to break the cycle of violence by mentoring, teaching, visiting prisons, stopping the proliferation of handguns and offering support and counseling for family members. With an introduction by Susan Taylor, of Essence magazine, this is a heartfelt book; photos of each mom have a wrenching, resonant, ""there but for the grace of God"" kind of power.