The Men of Brewster Place

Ben reflects that fall is his favorite season at Brewster Place, even though tenants start bothering him to turn the radiators on as soon as it gets chilly. He thinks approvingly about one Brewster Place resident, Cliff Jackson. Ben doesn’t understand why he changed his name to Abshu but uses the young man’s chosen name without complaint. If more of Brewster Place’s young people were like Abshu, Ben claims that he “could rest a little easier about where we’re gonna end up as a people” (134).

Abshu is drinking coffee and “plotting the assassination of the Reverend Moreland Woods” (134). He does it every day and contemplates the punishment he might receive for the crime. Woods had become the first Black member of the city council, thanks to people like Abshu, who worked hard to support his campaign. However, on his very first vote, Woods supported the demolition of Brewster Place. He didn’t have to worry about betraying his constituency because the neighborhood would be dispersed, and “the homeless don’t vote” (135).

Abshu is a playwright and has dedicated himself to exposing the children of Brewster Place to art, writing grants to produce plays and puppet shows. He is particularly fond of Shakespeare and believes that his plays can appeal to everyone. Most importantly, however, he listens to the kids at the community center and tries to help them solve their problems.

Having spent much of his childhood in foster care, Abshu is committed to helping other families stay together. His father had been a violent man; when he began to hit the children, his mother decided to move out. However, before she could pack their things, Child Protective Services came to their door, and Abshu and his siblings were separated and placed in foster care. While his foster family wasn’t cruel, Father and Mother Mason showed their foster children little affection. No one ate until Father Mason had been served, and the foster children were all obliged to follow his rules. The Masons enforced a strict curfew and took the children to church every Sunday, which kept Abshu off the streets. However, existing “on the edge of hunger, on the edge of kindness” made Abshu appreciate “a life fully lived” (140). He felt pulled to pursue a meaningful career and surround himself with love.

Abshu got a degree in social work and made the community center near Brewster Place his home. Most of the boys who came to the community center respected him deeply. He lived by the motto “Lose no child to the streets” (140), and if he did lose one, he cried at home.

In one case, Abshu taught a boy and his friends to stand up to bullies by cursing like Shakespeare. The bullies were so shocked and confused at being called a “lump of foul deformity” (142), among other things, that they left the other boys alone. Reflecting on this moment of pride, Abshu thinks that Reverend Woods must be sick with regret for displacing the children of Brewster Place and should be put “out of his misery” (143). However, he also thinks that perhaps Woods doesn’t care about anything besides himself.

Since Woods refuses to meet with Abshu, he has been trying to find a new way to confront the councilman. He thinks that Woods is avoiding him because he knows that Abshu sees through him. Abshu’s musings are interrupted by his friend B.B. Ray, a civil rights lawyer. B.B. suggests that Abshu should make Woods’s life difficult but avoid getting into trouble himself. He points out that Woods’s weakness is women; he asks Abshu how many actresses he knows, and the two devise a plan.

On the day of the city council meeting, a group of around 50 women with babies in strollers or pregnant bellies gathers outside city hall, chanting Woods’s name and claiming that he is the father of their children. Woods denies knowing any of the women, but they continue chanting, demanding paternity tests. Amid the controversy, the council asks Woods to resign. Worried that one or two of the women might be telling the truth, Woods doesn’t fight, and a conservative white councilman replaces him.

Abshu wonders if he was wrong to oust the only Black council member; perhaps one Black man serving would lead to a second getting elected. All Abshu knows is that he will continue fighting for what he believes in and “hope […] his work [i]s making a difference” (154).