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From Harlem Streets to Literary Heights: Walter Dean Myers' Journey
Walter Dean Myers' memoir "Bad Boy" has become a cornerstone of young adult literature, offering an unflinching look at growing up Black in mid-20th century America. This raw account of Myers' journey from troubled Harlem youth to celebrated author has resonated with generations of readers since its 2001 publication. The memoir has been embraced by educators nationwide as an essential text for understanding the complex intersection of race, identity, and education in American society. Even Michelle Obama has cited Myers' work as influential in shaping her understanding of the Black American experience. What makes "Bad Boy" particularly remarkable is how Myers transforms his personal struggles with speech impediments, academic challenges, and racial identity into a universal story of resilience and self-discovery that continues to inspire readers two decades after its publication.
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Roots: The Foundation of Identity
Each of us arrives in this world with a history already in place - physical traits, family circumstances, and ancestral stories that shape who we become. For Walter Dean Myers, this history began with Lucas D. Dennis, his great-great-uncle who had been enslaved on The Bower plantation in Virginia. Following the Civil War, part of the Dennis family relocated to Martinsburg, West Virginia, where they merged with the Green family. It was here that Mary Dolly Green, Walter's biological mother, gave birth to him on August 12, 1937.
Tragedy struck early when Mary died shortly after giving birth to Walter's sister Imogene, leaving their father George Myers with seven children to raise alone. Though Walter has no memory of his biological mother, when he thinks of "mother," his mind conjures Florence Dean, his father's first wife who would later become his adoptive mother.
Florence's own story represents America's melting pot - born to a German immigrant mother and Native American father, she met George Myers while working at a hotel in Martinsburg. After marrying at seventeen and having two daughters, they divorced. Florence later married Herbert Dean in Baltimore before moving to Harlem, where Herbert found work first with Dutch Schultz's moving company and later as a janitor.
The family's history reflects the Great Migration that saw millions of Black Americans leave the South for northern cities. Herbert had grown up working in his father's hauling business but left school after third grade. When the business declined during the Depression, Herbert sought better opportunities in New York. Eventually, Florence and Herbert brought Florence's daughters to New York, and several months later, they welcomed young Walter into their home.
This complex family history provided Walter with a rich tapestry of experiences and perspectives that would later inform his writing. His roots connected him to slavery, the Civil War, the Great Migration, and the emerging Black middle class in Harlem - all fundamental elements in understanding the African American experience that would later become central themes in his literary work.
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Harlem: A Cultural Awakening
For young Walter, Harlem was a world of vibrant contradictions - a place where hardship and cultural richness coexisted on every block. His earliest memories include Division Street, where few Black people lived when he was five. What mattered most to him then wasn't racial differences but the everyday wonders of his environment: Aunt Nancy's bakery, pushcarts selling goods, a matzoh factory, and Jewish boys who became both playmates and occasional adversaries.
Walter's weekly routine involved Mama dropping him off on Sunday and collecting him Friday. His Aunt Nancy, a woman as wide as she was tall and exactly his father's shade of brown, ran a bakery and cared for him. Though friendly, Walter resented her insistence on afternoon naps when he never wanted to sleep, especially during daylight. The living room featured a cast-iron alligator ashtray nearly his height with glass eyes that seemed to follow him around the room.
When allowed to play outside the bakery, Walter met neighborhood boys who taught him to bully Jewish boys who wouldn't fight back - until they lured them around corners where their mothers couldn't see and fought fiercely. Men from the matzoh factory sometimes broke up these fights and rewarded everyone with hot matzohs, teaching Walter early lessons about conflict and reconciliation.
The most treasured times were when Mama didn't work outside the home. They would walk down 125th Street together, visiting stores and theaters, sometimes treating themselves to the penny arcade. At home, Walter would listen to her soap operas or sit as she read True Romance magazines aloud in a special voice meant only for him. With Mama's patient help, Walter slowly learned to read, eventually reading to her while she did housework - his first step toward loving words and language.
When Mama began doing "day's work" cleaning other people's apartments, Walter was left with various caretakers of varying quality. Once she arranged with the corner grocer to give Walter food on her account if he was hungry. The enterprising young boy exploited this arrangement by buying penny chocolates until both he and the grocer received stern reprimands. Walter loved dancing to the music that filled Harlem's streets, performing "the boogie" for pennies which he'd use to buy colored icy pops - once consuming so many that the food coloring passing through his system sent the family rushing to the hospital.
As the baby of the family and only boy, Walter received most of the attention, which he enjoyed but sometimes abused - like when he deliberately broke his sister Gerry's new watch out of jealousy, earning a fierce spanking with "the strap." These early experiences in Harlem shaped Walter's understanding of community, family dynamics, and the consequences of one's actions - themes that would later emerge prominently in his writing.
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School Days: Confronting Difference
When Walter started first grade, he could already read at a second-grade level and was physically large enough for that grade. However, Mrs. Dworkin, his first-grade teacher, objected: "He can't speak well enough." Walter didn't understand what she meant - in his mind, he spoke perfectly well. Despite this confusion, he loved Mrs. Dworkin, a warm teacher who praised good work with embraces, and he was happy in her class.
It wasn't until second grade that Walter realized he had a speech problem, when classmate Manuel Bonilla taunted him with "Dabba! Dabba! Dabba!" mimicking his pronunciation. Walter's response was immediate - he punched Manuel, earning his first trip to the principal's office. Mrs. Flynn, the elegant principal, assigned Walter to write "I will never, never hit any student in Public School 125" five hundred times, introducing him to a punishment that would become familiar throughout his school years.
The family had moved to Morningside Avenue, a beautiful street bordering the park that marked Harlem's western edge. At eight, Walter was given his own house key - a magnificent symbol of growing up and a practical way to smuggle in comic books that Mrs. Dodson, whom Walter nicknamed the "Wicked Witch of West Harlem," had convinced Mama to ban as "road maps to the jailhouse." Walter collected discarded comics from his neighbor Roughie, eventually hiding nearly two hundred under his bed.
In school, Walter received speech therapy but found it frustrating - to him, his words sounded perfectly clear. He excelled at reading and spelling, but his speech difficulties overshadowed these strengths. When kids laughed at his pronunciation, Walter would yell or punch them - establishing a pattern of using physical force to compensate for his communication challenges. After slapping a student, his third-grade teacher Mrs. Zeiss began slapping Walter daily until Mama intervened. Mrs. Zeiss then failed Walter in nearly everything except gym and attendance - even giving him a C in reading despite his advanced abilities. Despite the poor marks, Walter was promoted to fourth grade.
These early school experiences established a pattern that would follow Walter throughout his education: academic ability coupled with behavioral issues stemming from his speech impediment and his reactions to being teased. The disconnect between his intellectual capabilities and his ability to express himself verbally created frustration that often manifested as aggression - a struggle that would continue to shape his educational journey and self-perception.
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Finding Refuge in Books
As Walter's speech difficulties continued to create problems in school, he discovered that books offered a sanctuary where communication barriers disappeared. After a disastrous third-grade report card with red circles everywhere, his brother-in-law Frank, a college graduate and commercial artist, volunteered to help Walter with arithmetic - his lowest mark. Frank's teaching method was brutal rote learning - one hundred oral problems daily with instant answers required. One mistake meant another hundred problems. Though Walter learned to hate arithmetic, this rigorous approach improved his academic performance.
At school, Mrs. Parker made Walter and classmate Eric Leonhardt cookie monitors. Though she warned Walter about his reputation for fighting, he tried hard to behave. After Easter vacation, however, a fight with Maurice "Bunny" Fleetwood ruined everything. When Bunny accidentally hit Walter twice during an argument, Mrs. Parker blamed Walter. After she berated him, Walter threw a book that accidentally hit her. She threatened reform school - a common disciplinary threat for Black boys in that era.
That same day, Walter became violently ill. At the hospital, doctors discovered his appendix needed emergency removal. While recovering at home, he disobeyed orders by riding his bicycle, reopening his incision and requiring another hospital stay. He missed the rest of the school year but was still promoted to fifth grade at a new school.
During this period, Walter's relationship with books deepened. Reading became not just an escape but a way to process his experiences and understand the world. Books offered clarity that spoken language, with all its complications for Walter, could not. On the page, words behaved predictably, stories followed logical patterns, and communication flowed without impediment. This growing love of literature would become the foundation for his future career, though at the time it was simply a refuge from the challenges of daily life.
The summer of 1947 brought excitement for Black Americans as Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby integrated major league baseball, Joe Louis and "Sugar" Ray Robinson held boxing championships, and President Truman negotiated to integrate the armed forces. These cultural milestones provided Walter with Black heroes to admire and emulate, expanding his sense of possibility beyond the constraints of his immediate environment.
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Mr. Lasher's Intervention: A Turning Point
Walter's first male teacher, Mr. Irwin Lasher, became a pivotal figure in his educational journey. Their relationship began with confrontation when Mr. Lasher directly addressed Walter's history of fighting teachers: "You're a bright boy, and that's what you're going to be in this class," he stated firmly. The inevitable clash came on the third day when Walter's pretend kick actually connected with the teacher's backside. Despite Walter's wild swings, the WWII veteran easily subdued him.
Instead of sending a note home, Mr. Lasher personally walked Walter to meet his mother. He explained that Walter's test scores showed he was quite intelligent but his behavior threatened to waste his potential. "We need more smart Negro boys," he said. "We don't need tough Negro boys." This direct approach, acknowledging both Walter's intelligence and the social context of being a young Black man in America, resonated in ways previous disciplinary measures had not.
Mr. Lasher transformed Walter's education by placing him in weekly speech therapy and convincing him his reading ability made him special. He put Walter in leadership positions and had him coach slower readers. By year's end, Walter's grades improved dramatically, and he was recommended for rapid advancement classes in junior high.
This intervention came at a critical moment in Walter's development. Mr. Lasher saw beyond the behavioral issues to recognize Walter's intellectual potential and provided both the structure and encouragement needed for him to succeed. Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Lasher helped Walter see himself differently - not as a troublemaker but as someone with valuable skills and abilities that could benefit others.
Walter's improved behavior nearly came undone through two incidents. First, he was dragged behind a taxi after trying to hitch a ride on its bumper, resulting in severely scraped legs. When his parents discovered his injuries, Walter inexplicably blamed his mother for beating him, causing a terrible rift between his parents. Later, he jumped off a church roof to escape "Crazy Johnny," fracturing both heels but suffering in silence rather than admit another injury.
These incidents reveal the complexity of Walter's character - his improved classroom behavior existed alongside continued risk-taking and poor decision-making outside school. The pattern of academic promise coupled with behavioral challenges would continue throughout his educational journey, creating the tension that defines much of his memoir.
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Growing Awareness: Race and Identity
By summer 1949, Walter's understanding of his place in the world was expanding in painful ways. His uncle Lee's death - robbed, beaten, and stomped to death in an alley - transformed the household. Walter's father became almost unrecognizable - wild-eyed, incoherent, and consumed by mourning. He turned intensely to religion, spending Sundays in silence listening to radio preachers and praying by his bed at night. The funeral revealed adults crying openly with distorted faces, showing Walter a level of pain he'd never witnessed before.
This tragedy coincided with Walter's growing awareness of race in America. He joined a Special Progress class at Junior High School 43, where students would complete seventh and eighth grades in one year. Among other equally smart students, Walter noticed a growing sense of isolation. They studied American history including slavery, which made the Black students uncomfortable as they tried to reconcile their belief in fundamental fairness with these disturbing historical facts.
Walter's friendship with Eric became strained as he realized he wouldn't be welcome at many parties Eric would attend simply because he was Black. Neither of his parents had prepared him for this reality. His mother, with Native American and German heritage, was sympathetic to racial struggles, while his father's advice was simply that Walter would have to make his own way without help from either race.
By 1951, Walter recognized that everything personal with value in his life - all the authors he studied, all the historical figures except George Washington Carver - were white men. He didn't mind their gender or race, but he resented how whiteness seemed central to assigning value. His earlier hope that intelligence and goodness could transcend race was crumbling, and he wondered where he would fit in a society that fundamentally didn't seem to value people who looked like him.
This growing awareness of racial dynamics coincided with Walter's deepening love of literature. He discovered more books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, which he loved despite their complicated racial politics. He began observing Harlem through a writer's eyes, recording his observations in composition books. He wrote about neighborhood characters, the constant streams of people entering and exiting the A train at 125th Street (mostly heading to menial downtown jobs), and the contrast between white and Black accomplishments in newspapers.
Walter's writing models were exclusively white authors from school. At thirteen, he'd never read a book by a Negro writer and didn't want to identify himself as Negro by asking for one at the library. After frustrating attempts to write about his neighborhood like published authors, he stopped writing temporarily, fearing he might one day be relegated to taking the A train downtown to clean for white people.
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Academic Promise and Personal Struggle
At fifteen, starting his junior year at Stuyvesant High School, Walter felt completely lost about his future while classmates excitedly discussed college plans and career aspirations. Some were applying to Yale's early admission program, others planning futures as engineers, physicists, and doctors. The contrast between their confidence and Walter's uncertainty heightened his sense of isolation.
Stuyvesant excelled at preparing students for higher education, virtually guaranteeing top-quarter graduates admission to prestigious colleges. But as a Black student in the early fifties, Walter's options were limited. Many Southern colleges didn't accept Black students, with guidance counselors quietly steering Black applicants away. Jewish students faced similar discrimination with rumored quotas. There were historically Black colleges like Howard and Hampton, but voluntary segregation contradicted everything Walter believed about excellence transcending race.
His speech impediment further complicated matters. At nine, a family friend had crushed Walter's brief legal ambitions by telling him he "couldn't be a lawyer because he didn't speak well enough." Though his speech sounded clear to him, others constantly asked him to repeat himself. Reading aloud became terrifying, sometimes forcing him to memorize passages rather than actually reading them. He eliminated any career requiring public speaking from his consideration.
Financial reality loomed largest. Walter's family could barely afford necessities. He collected college catalogs that didn't charge for them, dreaming about courses in English literature and philosophy, but knew they couldn't afford even City College. When a coach invited him to join the track team, Walter agreed but never showed up, too ashamed to admit he couldn't afford shoes or athletic wear.
At work in the garment district, Walter experienced racial discrimination firsthand when a white boy was hired and immediately trained on the ticketing machine while Walter was reassigned to push a hand truck through the streets - exactly what he'd feared. When he protested, the boss said he'd take the cart or lose his job. The Black shipping clerk intervened when he sensed Walter might hit the boss. Walter walked out feeling small and ashamed he couldn't better articulate his feelings about being relegated to manual labor simply because of his race.
Hurt by this experience, Walter buried himself in reading, particularly drawn to Lin Yutang's "The Gay Genius" about Su Tung Po, a Chinese poet and civil servant who advanced through testing rather than racial considerations. Reading became his refuge. Books weren't just escapes but places to hide the part of himself that loved poetry and literature - aspects people couldn't reconcile with his physical appearance as a big Black teenager who played basketball and fought.
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The Breaking Point
At fifteen, Walter was summoned to the guidance counselor's office at Stuyvesant after missing three weeks of school. Her stern questioning about what he did all day received only his subdued "Nothing" in response. The truth was more complex: Walter would leave home each morning, sometimes intending to go to school, but repeatedly exit the train at 59th Street to wander Central Park instead. He'd discovered the pleasure of comparing different translations of literary works, watching foreign films at the 42nd Street Apollo Theater, or sitting on Riverside Drive writing dark poems in his notebook.
The counselor warned Walter he had limited time to improve before college applications, but after nodding agreement, he simply walked out of school again. Unlike a triumphant, defiant truant, Walter wasn't disdainful of the system - he desperately wanted to be part of it but didn't know how. Surprisingly, his year-end report card showed he'd passed some classes he rarely attended, as if the school was looking for ways to advance him.
At home, Walter's mother's drinking worsened. He retreated to his room, thinking about girls with ambivalence. When older guys talked about sex with intense interest, Walter didn't share their level of preoccupation. He worried about the connection between intellectual interests and being labeled homosexual, especially in the Black community where reciting poetry and listening to classical music were sometimes stereotyped as "faggot" behaviors. Though he knew logically that loving books didn't make him gay, he increasingly hid these interests.
Walter's religious faith was also faltering. Raised with the Church of the Master as his community center, he'd believed in God's fairness rewarding the good and pure of heart. But life wasn't working out as he'd expected. He wrote to Reverend Robinson expressing his doubts, but his response about relying on faith wasn't the direct line to God Walter had hoped for.
School became a disaster - chemistry formulas eluded him, simple math problems became mysteries, and he fumbled early quizzes badly. Sent to another guidance counselor, Walter sat silently while he recited his faults and poor attendance. When the counselor demanded to know his problem, Walter couldn't express that he disliked himself more than the counselor ever could, that he was deeply disappointed with his life, that he knew the school only cared about its successes. He simply walked out again.
When Walter's mother discovered his truancy, she accompanied him to Stuyvesant. At school, all his forged notes were produced - she was amazed at how well he'd copied her signature. She learned he'd missed nearly thirty days. During a private conference, she apparently told them about Walter's childhood scarlet fever and "nervousness." When they returned, Walter was told he could remain at Stuyvesant if he agreed to supervision by a city agency. He was officially labeled "disturbed."
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From Despair to Redemption
January began Walter's final term at Stuyvesant in panic. While he wanted a miracle in school, he spent his time reading - a history of the labor movement, Francois Villon (whom he disliked), and Siegfried Sassoon's war poems that deeply moved him. He was drawn to the violence of war, imagining himself in trenches, weighing words against dying, believing death could answer failed promise.
As spring approached, Walter's anxieties increased. Books became harder to understand, and his writing contained too many obscure references he couldn't even understand days later. On May 17th, the Supreme Court condemned the "separate but equal" philosophy in Brown vs. Board of Education, giving Black Americans cautious hope. Meanwhile, Walter intercepted school letters and lied about his attendance. When he finally gathered courage to go to Stuyvesant, he discovered the school year had ended - graduation ceremonies held, the senior class moved on. It was over. He walked uptown crying, so far from what he wanted for his life.
At sixteen, Walter was completely adrift - no ideas, no plans, little hope. He pretended to go to school each morning but spent his days in the park, unable to read or write as words had stopped making sense. On his seventeenth birthday, August 12th, he went to the army recruiting office. A Black sergeant helped him apply with a fabricated clean background and dead parents. He was accepted and would enter the following Monday.
When Walter finally told his parents, his mother cried and asked why. He couldn't articulate his shame for squandering his life or express his sense of being lost. He only knew he wanted to escape from home, from Harlem, from anyone who might question what he planned to do with his life. His father said joining the army would make a man out of him, trying to reassure him. On his departure day, his father gave Walter his Navy New Testament and a money belt - what he had to give. His mother couldn't speak through her tears.
Walter was lucky to survive his teenage years without being killed or jailed. The army years were numbing - learning and teaching efficient killing, a non-growing period that initially helped him forget his failures but became a curse. After discharge, he worked a series of low-paying jobs - factory work, mailroom, post office, messenger.
His turning point came during a construction job when, covered in debris eating lunch on a curb, he saw disgust in a passing girl's face. Remembering his teacher's advice - "don't stop writing" - he bought a composition book and began again. Writing was refreshing, like returning to his element. He sent poems to literary magazines, dreaming of strangers reading his words. Eventually, some were published.
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" gave Walter permission to write about his own Black urban experience. His next story about basketball was immediately accepted. When his half-brother Wayne died in Vietnam, he processed his grief through writing for Essence magazine. He met other Black writers, including John O. Killens who introduced him to Baldwin himself and brought Walter into the Harlem Writer's Guild.
In 1968, Walter won a contest for Black writers run by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, launching his career publishing books for young people. Once while visiting his parents with a new book, his mother asked what he did. When he explained writing children's stories, his father emphasized Walter was a man now, not a boy. Later he heard his mother proudly telling a friend her son "types stories for a living."
Writing allowed Walter to enter a world where his skills were respected, among book lovers and those who appreciate language and ideas - not bad for a bad boy who found his voice and purpose through words on a page.
