DONALD BAKEER www.donaldbakeerbooks.com
DONALD BAKEER
The Author 2
D O N A L D B A K E E R , Author | DIGITAL EDITION
DONALD BAKEER I was born in Kansas City, Missouri on October 7th, 1944 and began writing at the age of 15 for The Kansas City Call newspaper as a cub reporter, mentored by Ms. Lucille Bluford, the renown editor of the paper. My Dad, Elmer Jack Baker, was the Head Pressman of the paper, but aspired to write. He would write a sports column for the vacationing Sports editor twice a year. I grew up in that newsroom reading Black newspapers from around the country: The Pittsburgh Courier; The Chicago Defender; The St. Louis Post Dispatch, etc. I covered local sports events and interviewed sports celebrities while I was still in high school. I became a poet at Howard University in 1966 and since then I have written over 500 poems, dozens of short stories,several plays,and screenplays while publishing 2 novels, 2 memoirs, one book of poetry, and a satirical critique of African American culture. I collaborated with Oliver Stone; Steve Anderson, and Warner Bros. to develop the classic film, SOUTH CENTRAL (1992) from my book, “CRIPS”, which was written to thwart the L.A. gang murder epidemic that was taking over a thousand lives a year at the time. The movie was quite successful; and ultimately the gang murders subsided to less than they were before the Crips began in 1969.
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D O N A L D B A K E E R , Author | DIGITAL EDITION
DONALD BAKEER
The Book
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D O N A L D B A K E E R , Author | DIGITAL EDITION
Crips
The Story of the L A Street Gang from 1971-1985
SOUTH CENTRAL L.A. CRIPS is the story of why nearly 10,000 people were destined to get killed during the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s in a social explosion that began in L.A. then spread across this nation and, indeed, the world. This is the story of O.G. Jimmie Black (aka O.G. Bobby Johnson in the movie), who evolves during those explosive years in South Central L.A. from the Watts Rebellion (1965) to just prior to the days that sparked the L.A. Uprising (1992). It is the story of a father and son’s triumph in the midst of America’s most deadly gang war. “Bakeer’s story moves swiftly, and his writing is deft”, Gayle Anthony, LA. Sentinel. “I loved the book and the movie.” Tupac Shakur. “The novel CRIPS by Don Bakeer corrects your assumptions about the gangs.” LA Weekly. Many of the characters personify the collective spirit of the Original Crips/O.G.’s and specifically that of Raymond Washington, the founder. But, even more than that, the characters represent the rebellious spirits of Bunchy Carter, Stanley (Tookie) Williams, Ice T, Ice Cube, Tupac, Nipsey Hussle, and Sanyinka Shakur (aka Monster Cody), etc. I dedicate my books to the 20 people on my block on 74th Street who were killed but never reported about in any media. I want to memorialize them because their lives do matter.
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D O N A L D B A K E E R , Author | DIGITAL EDITION
The Gallery
DONALD
BAKEER
www.donaldbakeerbooks.com