A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapter 13-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Holy City”

In the opening chapter of A Most Beautiful Thing, author Arshay Cooper discusses the danger and trauma associated with growing up in Chicago’s West Side. He explains that by the age of 14, kids in his neighborhood had already “experienced what most soldiers witnessed in war” (1). According to Cooper, his neighborhood was known as “Holy City” because the names of all the different street gangs, which controlled the area’s streets, ended with the word “Lord” (2). He also explains that there were “zombies” in every direction, which is the term he uses to describe people addicted to drugs (2). Cooper’s early life was severely affected by drug and alcohol addiction, as his mother and aunts and uncles all had drug or alcohol addictions. This led him, at the age of 13, to choose to believe that his mother was dead. When she disappeared for a full month, he assumed she had actually died but learned from his grandmother that his mom had checked herself into a rehab home known as the Victory Outreach Christian Recovery Home (3).

After his mother sought help and transformed her life, Cooper learned of the trauma that she had lived with because of physical and sexual abuse from her father when she was young. Witnessing his mother’s transformation, Cooper began to transform also, not only letting go of the past bitterness he had toward her but also understanding that change is possible. Cooper concludes the chapter by providing more details about his family—his mother, Linda; his older brother, Shaundell; his younger brother, Isaac; and his little sister, Pamela. The whole family lives in a one-bedroom apartment. Cooper also describes his school, Manley Career Academy, which he argues is known for its success in basketball and “for being one of the most violent schools on the West Side” (10). According to Cooper, during his time there in the late 1990s, “Manley graduated less than 60 percent of its senior class every year and only sent 10 percent of its senior class to college” (10).

Chapter 2 Summary: “Barbershop Prayers”

Cooper begins Chapter 2 describing his reaction to entering his school’s lunchroom one day and seeing a long, thin white boat on display along with a television monitor playing a video of a rowing team in action. As he is examining the display, a white lady introduces herself as Coach Jessica and asks if he would like to be on the crew team. Having never even heard of crew, or the sport of rowing, he declines and walks away. The following day, Cooper notices the boat again, now with a sign offering free pizza for students who show up to the crew team meeting. He still has no interest, but his best friend Preston wants to go, so he agrees to join Preston if he will introduce him to Grace, a girl Cooper has a crush on.

Cooper and Preston attend the meeting, along with roughly 30 other students, where they officially meet Coach Jessica, Coach Victor (the strength and conditioning coach), and Ken Alpart, the sponsor behind bringing the crew program to Manley. Coach Jessica tells them that the program consists of not only competitive rowing but also swim lessons, tutoring, and entrepreneurship classes. When Alpart speaks to the group, he tells them that rowing is “a thinking man’s sport,” in which discipline, focus, and the ability to work well with others is most important, and that it requires “strong core balance, physical strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance” (25). Alpart, a former rower at the University of Pennsylvania, also tells the group that his idea to form and sponsor the first all-African American crew team at a public high school was rejected by many other schools in the area, so they will be the first (25). Cooper writes that the students there with him are “the sons of drug addicts, prostitutes, gang members, and drug dealers,” while the people they will race against are possibly “sons of lawyers, doctors, professors, and salesmen” (26).

Chapter 3 Summary: “In Sync”

Days after the initial meeting, the Manley rowing team is holding tryouts in the same school gymnasium. This will require the roughly 20 boys who show up again to stretch, run laps, and learn how to row using the erg machines, which Cooper points out are “lined up across the gym floor like an army of pawns” (27). Cooper immediately notices that the group is set off into cliques. Among them are upperclassmen Arthur, Elliott, and Marcus; another group he really does not know; Alvin, whom he had recently seen beat up another kid; and a big freshman named Malcolm, whom he argues “says whatever the hell he wants” (29). On the erg machines, they learn the basics of a rowing stroke—the catch, drive, finish, and recovery. When the group is given a five-minute water break and they all head for the vending machines, they also learn that nutrition and proper eating habits will be expected of them. Cooper says this was the first time he had heard words like “protein, carbs, calories, and their definitions” (31).

The next portion of the tryouts consists of learning about technique, pace, and rowing in rhythm with others. The coaches explain that their strokes per minute should slow down to a steady 24 and that their 500-meter split, indicated on the erg machine’s meter box display, should drop to 2:00, then down to 1:50. This allows for stronger, more rhythmic strokes. Cooper points out that even on the first day, they fall into sync and “[s]atisfaction ripples through the air” (34). After tryouts, Ken speaks to the group again and tells them that the team goals are to get in shape during the fall, pass the swim test in the winter, get on the water in the spring with a possible spring break trip, and race the summer season against some private school kids (34). He also adds, “[M]ost importantly, get your grades up, learn about starting a business, go to college, and be contributors to your community” (34). Cooper explains that he left the session feeling like he was part of something and that practice was much different from classes at Manley because today “someone paid attention to [his] strengths” (35).

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

Over the opening three chapters of A Most Beautiful Thing, Cooper introduces readers to his dangerous neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, his turbulent family life, and his high school, which he argues is known for being especially violent. In Chapter 1, Cooper explains that by the age of 15, he “had already ran for [his] life, had bullets fly straight past [his] head, skipped over pools of blood, and witnessed dead bodies on the street” (1). The inherent danger and trauma of Cooper’s surroundings forms most of the backdrop for his narrative. Whereas the trauma of his surroundings came primarily from his mother’s drug addiction, the danger came in the form of the roughly “fifty different gangs and hundreds of different cliques,” or splinter groups of gangs, that existed in the city of Chicago during the 1990s (11).

The respective transformations that take place with both Cooper and his mother early in the narrative represent the book’s overarching theme—The Role of Education and Personal Growth in Overcoming Adversity. Both Cooper and his mother face seemingly insurmountable odds at an early age—the threat of violence and death from local gangs, physical and sexual abuse, drug addiction, and neglect—but they are able to transform themselves through education and personal growth.

The theme of The Importance of Diversity and Representation in Sports emerges when Cooper points out that the students in the gym with him at the first crew team meeting are “the sons of drug addicts, prostitutes, gang members, and drug dealers,” while the students his team will race against are “possibly sons of lawyers, doctors, professors, and salesmen” (26). The stark contrast between Cooper and his classmates at Manley and the affluent students who typically compete in crew also illustrates the historical and socioeconomic background of the sport. In Chapter 3, when Cooper is describing his experience at the team’s official tryouts, he explains that he and the others were chided for heading to the vending machines during their water break, leading Alpart to launch into a speech about nutrition. Cooper argues that he understands what Alpart is saying about eating healthier, but “the truth is [they] will eat whatever the school serves and what [their families] can afford” (32). Cooper’s statement offers a strong insight into the ways socioeconomic realities affect everyday issues like what a person is able to eat.