A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

In the opening chapter of A Most Beautiful Thing, author Arshay Cooper discusses the danger and trauma associated with growing up in Chicago’s West Side. He explains that by the age of 14, kids in his neighborhood had already “experienced what most soldiers witnessed in war” (1). According to Cooper, his neighborhood was known as “Holy City” because the names of all the different street gangs, which controlled the area’s streets, ended with the word “Lord” (2). He also explains that there were “zombies” in every direction, which is the term he uses to describe people addicted to drugs (2). Cooper’s early life was severely affected by drug and alcohol addiction, as his mother and aunts and uncles all had drug or alcohol addictions. This led him, at the age of 13, to choose to believe that his mother was dead. When she disappeared for a full month, he assumed she had actually died but learned from his grandmother that his mom had checked herself into a rehab home known as the Victory Outreach Christian Recovery Home (3).

After his mother sought help and transformed her life, Cooper learned of the trauma that she had lived with because of physical and sexual abuse from her father when she was young.