D.C. Success Story Gets Maryland Reading, Talking

"A Hope in the Unseen" chronicles in often explicit detail how Jennings was an outcast in his high school because he was bright and therefore uncool; his great good luck at having an empathetic teacher who often mentored him; how he and his mother struggled when the rent came due; and how despite these difficulties, he was usually confident in his ability to overcome challenges.

On his own, after a so-so summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was told he was not MIT material, he applied to Brown University, determined that he could overcome mediocre SAT scores and the academic limitations of his high school. Once he sent in the application, he immediately told people at school that he was going to go to Brown, in the Ivy League, even though he had not heard from the admissions office.

"I don't know what I would have told folk if I had not gotten in," he said, his sense of relief palpable a decade later.

Agreeing to talk to Suskind was not an easy call for Jennings. "My first reaction was to distrust him," he told the audience, which included some students and many faculty members.

"I don't know if I am willing to share," he recalled thinking. Jennings's upbringing and his religious faith encouraged discretion. "You don't tell everyone your business. No one wants to have a pity party," he said.

And he doubted Suskind's sincerity.

"I didn't think he would have the guts to come to my neighborhood," Jennings said.

Eventually, he decided to open up his world to the journalist on the condition that Suskind would share his life with Jennings. The match seemed to work; the two remain friendly, as do members of their families.

Recounting events to Suskind, Jennings said, turned out to be "therapeutic. I was able to really heal from a lot of the past challenges I had," including making peace with his often absent, often disappointing father, who did time in the District's prison in Lorton.

When Jennings later was trying to figure out a career path, he made a brief foray into the world of big money, contemplating an offer at one point from Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. "I visited and realized this is not me. I decided to follow my passion and not go for the money."

Now Jennings plans to turn another page. Having earned graduate degrees from Harvard and the University Michigan and worked for several years as a social worker in the District, he is about to move to a new challenge. He has agreed to run a youth pre-professional program for D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D).

"I want to propel the next generation to do better than we have done. You don't want to be Cedric Jennings. You want to be better than Cedric Jennings," he said to much applause and a few tears.

Jennings and Suskind are discussing the book in separate appearances in Maryland in the next few months. For details on their speaking engagements and information about the One Maryland One Book program, go tohttp://www.mdhc.org/programs/one-maryland-one-book.