Chestnut Hollow Blues: Adventures of an Illegitimate Child

Anita Mae Smith was barely fourteen years old when she gave birth to her son, Raymond, in the late forties in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Raymond’s father was somewhere between ages fifteen and sixteen, and never acknowledged Raymond’s entrance into the world. After he was adopted and his last name changed, little Raymond embarked on a coming-of-age journey on East Chestnut Street where he often faced incredible challenges. In a memoir chronicling his experiences as a young Black man in Penns...