Michael Lewis (known as Little B) was 13 years old when he was arrested for the murder of Darrell Woods in January 1997. He was sentenced to life in prison only 11 months later. Woods was parked in front of Henry's market-seven blocks out of his way home in a neighborhood known for its violent drug activity-when he was shot to death in front of his two sons.

Now Beacon Press is pleased to announce the publication of paperback edition of The Condemnation of Little B: New Age Racism in America. In The Condemnation of Little B, Elaine Brown(photo above), former chairman of the Black Panther Party, finds that "This child, this black boy, had become a scapegoat for the poverty and despair still suffered by Atlanta's black masses; proof that something was wrong with black America." In examining the story of Little B, she explodes the myth that the days of de facto racism are dead and offers a stinging criticism of the burden racism imposes on black youth.

Reviewing every aspect of the case, from court transcripts to police records, Brown dissects the events leading up to and following the murder of Woods. The more Brown investigated, the more she became convinced that Little B could not have committed this crime. Revealing the motivations of the people (many of them black) involved in Little B's conviction, Brown describes how he was demonized in the Atlanta press as an evil in the city. She recounts how he was condemned by official Atlanta, from the mayor on down, and relates how the adults in Little B's life set him adrift.

While holding privileged whites as well as blacks responsible, Brown discusses her theory of New Age Racism, and suggests that blacks have little significance in postindustrial America except as unskilled labor and a potential consumer market. Trapped by poor education and under- or unemployment, Brown writes, vast numbers of blacks are finding themselves ensnared in the nation's ghettos, expected by the "New World Order" to be consumers in order to have value. Brown further suggests that is a number of middle- and upper-class who condemn poor blacks by implying that they are poor and unemployed because they do not want to work.

For more information, to receive a copy of The Condemnation of Little B, or to arrange an interview with Elaine Brown, contact Kathy Daneman, Publicist, at kdaneman@beacon.org or 617-948-6584.

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