The Statement

In 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King's assassination, fifteen-year-old Lester Gold is sweeping the sawdust from the wooden floors of Gold's Kosher Cuts when he hears a shot. He runs from the back of the store, stumbles and hits his head, breaking his glasses. His father, Julius Menachem Gold, lies dying, and the killer is gone. Lester gets a brief glimpse of what becomes the sole clue: the killer is wearing an Orioles cap.

Lester's mother, Minnie, whose parents survived the Holocaust, Lester's best friend, Santo Bassani, a Trenton High sophomore, and Trenton cop Bertram Randolph all want Lester to do the right thing. Suspicion lands on a Black radical, Salim Johnson, who owns a head shop, Uhuru, and is a leader in the Black community. Lester is drawn into signing a statement that implicates Salim, who is tried, convicted and sent to Death Row. Lester graduates from college, and goes off to Columbia to study journalism as Salim languishes in prison. But events trigger seeds of doubt in Lester's mind about Salim's guilt, and when those doubts flourish, he is drawn back to Trenton as a young reporter in order to fight to exonerate Salim. He is haunted by guilt that is complicated by a love for Salim's sister, Naima. The journey Lester must undergo to discover the true killer forces him to question his deepest allegiances and his faith in his abiding love for the father who treated every person with dignity and respect.