I remember, on orientation day, the student advisor telling us not to venture into certain areas because they were dangerous. Of course, some of these areas were heavily populated by African Americans.

I became at once curious about how people lived there, how they fought for their survival, if they could successfully fight to save their dignity. I had a gut feeling that there were genuine stories of heroism and redemption in those communities that we weren't hearing about. We only read about gun fights, drug use, murders and rapes.

So with the encouragement of my professor William Julius Wilson (author of When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor), I began studying one community, after getting to know the community leaders and social workers active there. I was taking a risk but I also took precautions.

Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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