Macktown Backstory

Macktown is a fictional city in Maryland placed on the eastern shore. The time era the stories take place start in the early 1960s and go through into the early 1990s. The city government pulled out from general society and developed a system all its own that maintains the city politically and financially. Ninety-nine percent of its residences are African American thus it has a rich history of African American culture, lifestyle, and values. Macktown experiences all the things any normal city would experience such as crime and poverty as well as prosperity and success, and has its share of struggles, politically, socially, and within the community.

The stories of Macktown cover the lives of street thugs, community activist, the media and the church, and the city's political arena. The characters range from ghetto to elitist and they interact on various levels with one another. The one thing about Macktown is that the reader not only gets a taste of the street experience, but they are engaged in an alternative form of government, the struggles of the local community and church, and get personally involved with an array of characters that become familiar and relatable.

Macktown was forced to learn to operate under its own government policies, laws, and by the common bond of its citizens. Left to itself to collapse under the strong arm of poverty, the citizens emerge strong and the stories capture their struggles and psychological battles; the frustrations, determination, and radical ideologies inspired during their plight of survival. Reaching from the desperation of the streets to the power of government, not only are the stories of Macktown thought-provoking, but there is a learning curve that goes outside the box of the influence of street knowledge and into a reflective appreciation for unconventional politics and community empowerment.

As the beginning story of this long-running saga, the first episode, "The Hood and Humphrey Lawson," revolves around the ambitions of a government project thug called Hump Mack and his highly regimented street gang called the Perry Project Pips. Fed up from living in the mire of poverty he seeks to make change for himself and those around him. His plan is to build his own empire. While taking the streets by force and by fist, Humphrey becomes entangled with a sexy, manipulative woman of the Macktown social elite, radical government officials, pro-community activist, and a humble young minister out to reclaim the city from violence and corruption. Humphrey's quest for change and power takes him from the playgrounds of the ghetto to the glamour and high life of the elitist Macktown underworld.