Book Review: The School on 103rd Street

Celebrating Black History Month 2022

Book Review: 'The School on 103rd Street' by Roland S. Jefferson

4 / 5 Stars

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we celebrate Black History Month by reading a book - fiction or nonfiction - that illuminates the black experience.

For Black History Month 2022, our selection is 'The School on 103rd Street' by Roland S. Jefferson.

Jefferson was born in Washington DC, grew up in Los Angeles, and later returned to DC, and Howard University, to receive his medical degree. In 1974 he arranged with the vanity press publisher Vantage to publish '103rd Street', and his methodical self-promotion of the book led to a sell-through of the first print run. Subsequently the L.A.-based publisher Holloway House released a paperback edition in 1978 (which now, like many Holloway titles of that era, is impossible to find). 

In 1997 '103rd Street' (194 pp.) was released as a trade paperback by W. W. Norton, as part of its Old School Books imprint.

Jefferson has authored several additional novels, many set in a medical milieu; details are available at his website.

'103rd Street' is set in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in August of 1974. As the novel opens the protagonist, Dr. Elwin Carter, a physician at the neighborhood ghetto clinic, is contacted by two teenaged boys from the 'hood, Buddy Giles and Leon Davenport. Their friend Jimmie has been murdered, and while the police report the killing as gang-related, neither Buddy nor Leon believes that story. According to Buddy and Leon, Jimmie found out something that made him very frightened......something having to do with the School on 103rd Street.

Elwin Carter, his girlfriend Sable, and their BadAzz Mofo acquaintance Mathis team up to investigate Jimmie's murder. In so doing, they draw unwanted attention from The Man, who is not happy about black folks poking into his business. 

Can Elwin mobilize the Brothers in response to the provocations of Whitey ? Or will the grim truth about the School on 103rd Street be withheld from the unsuspecting people of Watts......and the black people of the United States.......?  

'The School on 103rd Street' is a solid 4-Star novel and deserves its status as an entry in the Old School pantheon. 

It does have its weaknesses; after the initial chapters and their focus on a disturbing crime and its implications, the narrative digresses into a rather lengthy segment detailing the daily life and times of protagonist Elwin Carter, and only gradually does the author return his attention to the eponymous School and its mysteries. And the closing chapters adopt a frenetic 'Hollywood thriller' scenario that seems out of place considering the more deliberate pacing of the rest of the novel. 

Where '103rd Street' is strongest is in its affectionate, but critical, exploration of the black bourgeoise and their struggle to succeed in a larger society that is hostile to their ambitions. The depiction of Los Angeles during the heyday of Black Power culture retains its authenticity, and Jefferson displays his skill at crafting believable characters and dialogue. All of these features are communicated in less than 200 pages, giving the novel a spare, declarative prose style that makes for an easy read.

Summing up, those with a fondness for the literature of the Old School, and those wanting an engaging look at black America as it was in the mid-1970s, will want to have 'The School on 103rd Street' on their shelves.