 | |
| Author | David Wilkerson John and Elizabeth Sherrill |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Biography, Crime, Christianity |
| Publisher | Bernard Geis Associates |
Publication date | January 1, 1963 |
| Media type | |
| OCLC | 317503776 |
| 258 | |
| LC Class | BV4464.5 .W5 1963 |
The Cross and the Switchblade is a biographical book written by the Rev. David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, published by Bernard Geis Associates in 1963.
In 1958, Pentecostal pastor David Wilkerson of Assemblies of God is touched by an article in Life about seven teenagers who are members of a criminal gang. [1] Alone and with little money, he goes to Brooklyn, sometimes at the risk of his life, to talk about Jesus with members of street gangs. [2] There, Wilkerson met Nicky Cruz, a member of the "Mau Maus" street gang.
The book became a bestseller, with more than 15 million copies distributed in over 30 languages. [3]
In 1970, a film adaptation was released, starring Pat Boone as David Wilkerson and Erik Estrada (in his screen debut) as Nicky Cruz, the teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson's ministry. [4]
The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Dominated by Kikuyu, Meru and Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba and Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya, the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment.
Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman, professionally known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel Maus. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines Arcade and Raw has been influential, and from 1992 he spent a decade as contributing artist for The New Yorker. He is married to designer and editor Françoise Mouly and is the father of writer Nadja Spiegelman. In September 2022, the National Book Foundation announced that he would receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church in New York City.
Sidney Richard Yates was an American politician from the state of Illinois. A native of Chicago, he graduated from Lake View High School in 1928. He received bachelor's (1931) and law (1933) degrees from the University of Chicago, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Chicago. In addition to working as an attorney, Yates also played semiprofessional basketball in the 1930s. He gained his initial experience in government as an attorney for the state bank receiver (1935–1937), and an assistant state attorney general specializing in traction railroads for the Illinois Commerce Commission (1937–1940). During World War II, Yates served in the United States Navy for two years (1944–1946) as an attorney based in Washington, D.C.
Nicky Cruz is a Puerto Rican Christian evangelist, the founder of Nicky Cruz Outreach, an evangelistic Christian ministry. He was also once the director of Teen Challenge, serving under David Wilkerson before founding another ministry home himself in California. Prior to his conversion he was the leader of a New York City gang, the Mau Maus.
The Black Guerrilla Family is an African American black power prison gang, street gang, and political organization founded in 1966 by George Jackson, George "Big Jake" Lewis, and W.L. Nolen while they were incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.
Global Teen Challenge is a network of Christian faith-based corporations intended to provide rehabilitation services to people struggling with addiction. It was founded by David Wilkerson in 1960. The global headquarters is in Columbus, Georgia, United States.
Mau Maus was the name of a 1950s street gang in New York City. The book and the adapted film The Cross and the Switchblade and biography Run Baby Run document the life of its most famous leader Nicky Cruz. Their name was derived from the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.
Spire Christian Comics was a line of comic books published by Fleming H. Revell starting in 1972.
Salvador Agron, a.k.a. "The Capeman", was a Puerto Rican gang member who murdered two teenagers in a Hell's Kitchen park in 1959. Agron mistook both teenagers for members of a gang called the Norsemen who were supposed to show up for a gang fight. Agron was the subject of the musical The Capeman by Paul Simon.
Christian literature is the literary aspect of Christian media, and it constitutes a huge body of extremely varied writing.
Diana Oughton was an American member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the American Friends Service Committee program to teach the young and older Native Americans.
Memos from Purgatory is Harlan Ellison's account of his experience with juvenile gangs when he joined one to research them for his first novel, Web of the City. It also describes the author's experience during an overnight stay in jail.
Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson, known as Cathy Wilkerson, is an American far-left radical who was a member of the 1970s radical group called the Weather Underground Organization (WUO). She came to the attention of the police when she was leaving the townhouse belonging to her father after it was destroyed by an explosion on March 6, 1970. Members of WUO had been constructing a nail bomb in the basement of the building, intending to use it in an attack on a non-commissioned officers dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey that night. Wilkerson, already free on bail for her involvement in the Chicago "Days of Rage" riots, avoided capture for 10 years. She surrendered in 1980 and pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of dynamite. She was sentenced to up to three years in prison and served 11 months.
The Reverend W. Graham Pulkingham was the rector at the Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., from 1963 until 1975. He and his wife Betty began the developments that led to the founding of the Community of Celebration and the worship band The Fisherfolk. He wrote several influential books including They Left Their Nets, and spoke worldwide at meetings and conferences.
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers is a 1970 book by Tom Wolfe. The book, Wolfe's fourth, is composed of two essays: "These Radical Chic Evenings", first published in June 1970 in New York magazine, about a gathering Leonard Bernstein held for the Black Panther Party, and "Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers", about the response of many minorities to San Francisco's poverty programs. Both essays looked at the conflict between black rage and white guilt.
Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020). She is the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
The Cross and the Switchblade is a 1970 American crime film directed by Don Murray. It stars Pat Boone as David Wilkerson, a Christian evangelist, and Erik Estrada as Nicky Cruz, a teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson's ministry. The film was based on a non-fiction book of the same name, The Cross and the Switchblade.
The Joe Boys, or JBS, was a Chinese American youth gang founded in the 1960s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Joe Boys were originally known as Joe Fong Boys, after its founder Joe Fong, a former member of the Wah Ching. Most of their members were born in Hong Kong or were of Hong Kongese descent.
Richard Preston Wilkerson Jr. and his wife DawnCheré are the pastors of Vous Church in Miami, Florida.
 | This article about a book on true crime is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
