We Beat The Street

This is a remarkable true story about 3 doctors who wrote this book because they wanted to show everybody that obstacles can be overcome and how struggles can lead to success. I think this book is very inspirational because it shows the power of friendship and of positive peer pressure. As kids, Drs. Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and George Jenkins grew up in the tough city of Newark, New Jersey. They had to struggle against gang violence, drug use, peer pressure, and the challenges of being young and african-american. 

The story starts out by first telling the back stories of each of the three main characters who would later become doctors. The first character that you read about is Sampson. The book tells about his first experience with doctors and hospitals when he was just a little kid. When he was just six years old, he broke his foot and had to go to the hospital to get a cast. Then the book starts to talk about Rameck. Now he never had an accident or an incident that required him to go to the hospital, he kind of doesn’t realize his dream of becoming a doctor until he goes and sees an orientation for medical and dental school with Sampson and the third main character George. There Rameck realizes that he should become a doctor and decides to chase after his dream with the assistance of his two best friends. The book then finally starts to talk the third and final character of the story, George. George wants to become a dentist. He first decides upon this profession when he had to go see the dentist when he was just a little kid. He had to get braces and was very excited. One of the reasons he wanted to become a dentist was because of the dentist that he had. George really liked him and this dentist had a great influence on George. Then the story starts to talk about each of their own lives, including family, school, and friends. Each of them came from a troubled area and had a tough childhood. They each had their own personal family problems and also had money problems that made their family lives harder. Each of them did not think they would go to college because of the fact that college costs money and they did not think that they had enough money to get that far in life. Another thing that held Rameck, George, and Sampson back were each of their own personal groups of friends. All of their friends seemed to be more harmful then helpful, always getting them in trouble, whether it is from drugs, violence, crime, or with the police. Their friends were definitely a negative influence. Then it talks about their schooling and how each of them met and started to hang out with one another. The book talks about how they stood by each other and helped one another out throughout their lives. I would recommend that you read it.