Black and Navy Blue

Black and Navy Blue is a tense, unflinching portrait navigating the brutality on the gritty streets of 1970s South Philadelphia, where thirteen-year-old Marty navigates the harsh realities of race, poverty, and survival after being uprooted from a stable life with his grandparents in West Philly. Thrust into a world of neglect, police brutality, and street violence, he faces a ruthless encounter with racist cops, an alliance with a dangerous neighborhood crew, and impossible choices-loyalty or self-preservation, rebellion or ruin. With no safety net to catch him, he seeks refuge in the structure of the U.S. Navy, clinging to a chance for redemption-only to be met with new forms of racism and hostility. Will he even make it out of boot camp? Raw, unflinching, and deeply human, this novel exposes the brutal cost of growing up Black in a system designed to break you-and the resilience it takes to rise above.