40 Fun Facts About The Other Wes Moore

Which famous scholarship sent author Wes Moore to Oxford just as the other Wes Moore went to prison?

Rhodes scholars study at Oxford, where Moore earned a master's degree in international relations. The mayor he interned for, a past winner himself, pushed him to apply.

What kind of business do four armed men rob in the crime at the center of The Other Wes Moore?

A jewelry store was the target, hit in February 2000 by four men carrying mallets and guns. An off-duty police sergeant chased them outside and was shot dead in the parking lot.

Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore, later became the first Black governor of which state?

Maryland elected him in 2022, making Moore only the third Black person ever elected governor of any US state. He was sworn in the following January.

What sentence did the other Wes Moore receive after a jury convicted him of felony murder?

Life without parole was the sentence, and he was the last of the four robbers to receive one. His lawyer had asked the judge to leave him a chance of parole.

Which NBA star's company, Unanimous Media, announced plans in 2021 to film The Other Wes Moore?

Stephen Curry signed on as executive producer when his Unanimous Media took up the book. It was the second attempt: a film version backed by a media mogul had been announced in 2012.

Which future US president once attended Riverdale, the Bronx private school of author Wes Moore?

John F. Kennedy studied at Riverdale from 1927 to 1930, when his family lived nearby. Joy Moore worked three jobs to send her son there, hoping the school would be his way out of the neighborhood.

Which religion did the other Wes Moore adopt in prison, at first to see his brother at services?

Islam began as a way to meet Tony at Friday prayers, but Wes became a devout believer and a leader among the prison's worshippers. By the book's end he was working inside as a carpenter.

Author Wes Moore took his 2023 oath as governor on a Bible once owned by which abolitionist?

Frederick Douglass owned one of the two Bibles Moore swore on that day. The other was his grandfather's, the minister who helped raise him in the Bronx.

Which military school did Joy Moore choose for her son Wes after his grades collapsed in the Bronx?

Valley Forge, a military academy in Pennsylvania, turned him around after he tried to run away four times in his first four days. He stayed through junior college and rose to command the whole cadet regiment.

In The Other Wes Moore, the author's mother Joy left which island for the Bronx as a small child?

Jamaica was home until Joy was three, when her father moved the family so he could study theology. She fit in by studying her new classmates' speech and copying it.

Uncle Howard warned teenage Wes Moore not to rest every hope on a pro career in which sport?

Basketball had colleges writing to him as the only sophomore starter on his school team. His uncle's reminder of the long odds stuck, and Moore soon saw he lacked the talent of true pro prospects.

As a White House Fellow, author Wes Moore worked as a special assistant to which Secretary of State?

Condoleezza Rice took Moore on as a special assistant in 2006, soon after his Army tour overseas. He went on to work as a banker at Citibank.

Author Wes Moore deployed as an Army officer with the 82nd Airborne Division to which country?

Afghanistan was his posting from 2005 into 2006, on leave from a job in finance. He rushed home from the deployment to see his dying grandfather but arrived too late.

Where was author Wes Moore studying abroad when his mother phoned about the hunt for his namesake?

South Africa hosted his semester in a Cape Town township, where a host family took him in. His mother's call about the other Wes Moore reached him there, an ocean away from Baltimore.

Through which federal program did the other Wes Moore earn a GED and train as a carpenter?

Job Corps gave him the happiest months of his life: he finished his GED within a month and built a five-foot-high house for his daughter. Low-paid jobs afterward pulled him back to dealing.

Whose autobiography persuaded cadet Wes Moore that the Army offered a young Black man a fair shot?

Colin Powell argued that the Army judged soldiers more fairly than the country did, and Moore was won over. He stayed on for junior college and earned an officer's commission.

The Other Wes Moore, which its author nearly titled Baltimore Sons, carries which subtitle?

One Name, Two Fates sums up the premise: two boys called Wes Moore from the same city, one bound for Oxford and the other for prison. The book closes with a list of about 200 groups that help young people.

Mary Moore won a place at which Baltimore university, the one author Wes Moore later graduated from?

Johns Hopkins stood five miles from where Mary grew up, yet she had to give up her place when her college aid was cut. The author arrived years later with a scholarship and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

What was the profession of Westley Moore, the author's father, who died when Wes was three?

Broadcast journalist Westley Moore had reported around the country before hosting his own public affairs show. His son wrote that researching the book was a way to honor that legacy.

In the opening scene of The Other Wes Moore, which sister does three-year-old Wes playfully punch?

Nikki, seven years older, was the target, and his mother sent him to his room shouting that he must never hit a woman. His father's gentle talk afterward is one of only two memories Wes has of him.

Which illness, mistaken by doctors for a sore throat, killed Westley Moore, the author's father?

Acute epiglottitis closed his airway hours after a hospital sent him home with an anesthetic. Joy chose not to sue, and the settlement paid to train paramedics in a technique for patients who cannot breathe.

Federal cuts ended which form of college aid for Mary Moore, forcing her to abandon her degree?

Pell Grant money covered what her low-paid job at a medical center could not. The author later argued that losing it changed the whole family's future.

What does the other Wes Moore fetch from home as a child after a boy punches him in a football game?

A knife from the kitchen was his answer, with his brother's advice about sending a message ringing in his head. Police got to him first and handcuffed him, an arrest his mother only learned of years later.

Which piece of gear, worn by paid lookouts, first drew the other Wes Moore into the drug trade?

A headset looked like the coolest thing Wes had ever seen, and the boys wearing them said he would be paid to watch for police. He told himself that keeping lookout was not really dealing.

What does Mary Moore do with the drugs she finds among her son Wes's belongings?

Mary flushes them down the toilet, and Wes comes home shouting that she has thrown away $4,000. He soon moves his stash to a girlfriend's place and carries on.

After the shootout with Ray in The Other Wes Moore, where does teenage Wes hide his gun?

In the fish tank is where the gun ends up, sunk while his bloodied clothes go in the trash. Police arrest him at the house anyway, before his brother can get there.

In The Other Wes Moore, the stranger who pays Wes twenty dollars for crack turns out to be what?

An undercover cop made the buy, and Wes had noticed the warning signs, down to the man's clean, smooth hands. He took the sale anyway and was surrounded by police within seconds.

Which Baltimore housing project, where Tony Moore dealt drugs, did he take young Wes to practice fighting?

Murphy Homes was known locally as the Murder Homes, and Tony was dealing there before he was even a teenager. The city later tore the towers down.

What accident with his sister Shani was the last straw before Joy Moore sent Wes to military school?

He split her lip with a stray punch thrown out of boredom, on the very day his school put him on probation. Joy slapped him, then broke down in tears, afraid she was losing her son.

What trick did older cadets play on new arrival Wes Moore when he tried to flee military school?

A fake map, handed over by a sergeant with directions to the train station, led him into dark woods instead. His whole chain of command was waiting there, laughing.

Who gave up their savings to pay for author Wes Moore's first year at military school?

His grandparents handed over money they had put aside for their own retirement, after Joy wrote to family and friends for help. The fees were even higher than at his private school in the Bronx.

What were young Wes Moore and his friend Shea doing in the Bronx when police handcuffed them?

Spray-painting graffiti tags got both boys cuffed and lectured, and Moore was in tears while Shea shrugged it off. Within a week he was back on the streets with a spray can.

Which military school figure did Joy Moore ask to keep an eye on her son Wes?

Captain Hill, a teenage cadet officer named Ty Hill, led the most disciplined company on campus and became Moore's lasting mentor. Years later he was a groomsman at Moore's wedding.

Which Baltimore mayor employed Wes Moore as an intern and urged him to seek a famous scholarship?

Kurt Schmoke, the city's first elected Black mayor, had won the same award himself and reminisced about his own Oxford days. He told Moore to learn who its founder really was before going.

The Other Wes Moore says which future African leader mentored the author's grandfather at college?

Kwame Nkrumah, later the leader of independent Ghana, spotted the under-dressed newcomer at Lincoln University and helped him buy warmer clothes. He had arrived in America just as unprepared himself.

In which city were Wes and Tony Moore captured at an uncle's house after twelve days on the run?

Philadelphia police, Baltimore detectives and federal agents arrested both brothers at the house, ending a manhunt that had disrupted a family wedding.

Tony Moore, named as the gunman in the Prothero killing, pleaded guilty in order to avoid what?

The death penalty was a real prospect for the man who shot a police sergeant, so Tony took the plea. He was sent to prison for good and died there in 2008.

What was off-duty Sergeant Bruce Prothero doing at the mall when the four robbers struck?

Working as a security guard was his second job, on top of police work, and he was a father of five. He ran after the robbers into the parking lot, where he was shot three times.

Which talk-show host wrote the call to action that closes The Other Wes Moore?

Tavis Smiley argues there that the two stories show how destinies get shaped, and how much power readers hold over their own. His advice is to try your hardest and leave the rest to God.

Cheryl, mother of two of the other Wes Moore's children, struggles with addiction to which drug?

Heroin had Cheryl slumped on the couch when Wes came home, the moment that pushed him to look for a way out of dealing. She later lost custody of her children and died at 24 after a fall.