Word: wolfs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Newark, New Jersey. The name had a ring of hope to it. At least, that's what Cornell and Minnie Wolf thought 34 years ago when they boarded the "Southern Comfort Special" in Albany, Ga., bound for Newark and a better life. Cornell, a hulking, powerful man who never got past the third grade, had toiled on the "bossman's" plantation picking beans, peanuts and cotton from can't-see in the morning until can't-see at night. Like thousands of Southern blacks, he had heard stories about those high-paying Northern jobs, those red brick Northern houses...
...today the Wolf family, like its adopted city, is in an advanced state of decline. Along with thousands of other families in dying inner cities, the Wolfs have become mired in a morass of welfare, crime and self-destruction. In a generation, they have descended from proud working class to demoralized underclass. Nine of the 13 children have never held a meaningful job, nor do they care to. Only one of the boys finished high school. Two of the girls became teenage mothers and live on welfare. One of the girls lived a fast life that came to a crashing...
...downward spiral of the Wolf family is linked to the disintegration of Newark's most impoverished neighborhoods. Twenty years ago the city had 9,000 businesses and more than 200,000 jobs; today it has less than half that many businesses and 120,000 jobs. The population, which was more than 80% white and totaled 430,000 in 1950, has shrunk to 330,000, 65% black. Although thousands of hardworking black families remain, nearly a third of the residents depend on public assistance. In some neighborhoods more than three-quarters of the families are on the dole, many...
...choices made by the next two Wolf daughters have been even more tragic. Loretta, 23, has never held on to a job and depends on welfare to support her four-year-old son. According to her family, she has a heroin habit, was arrested for possession and distribution, and is awaiting trial. Her sister Lovette, nicknamed "Betsy," was also a drug abuser; she lived a short life in the fast lane. Betsy had her first child at 16 and a second by a different father at 19. She wore the hippest threads, went to the trendiest places, and consumed drugs...
...first wave of Wolf children has fared poorly, the three still in their teens show no signs of doing better. The stories of Anthony, 19, Kemya, 16, and Myndell, the baby, 14, all have a disturbing sameness. None of them are interested in school; all are drawn to the street. They don't read % newspapers or much of anything else. When asked what places like Selma, Birmingham and Greensboro mean to them, they are dumbfounded...