Summary of 'The Fastest Runner on Sixty-First Street'

The story is about a guy who’s called Morty Aiken. Morty really liked to skate and especially to run. He was so fund of it that he sometimes was running alone. Everybody around him said that he was a damn fast runner. Morty was a bit smaller than the other boys on his own age. Morty’s secret dream was to be called the Human Streak of Lightning, so all girls would like him. Later on Morty meet a boy who was called Tony Rabuski, he was the strongest guy in the school, but he was very slow, so all the boys that he wanted to beat, was just running away from him. Tony and Morty makes their own “gang”. Morty captured the boys, and Tony owned them. Tony and Morty were beginning to make a bad shadow around them. Morty didn’t really want to kick and beat other boys, but he could not say no to Tony. A place called Jackson Park, was the: “White men’s Park”. Tony was beginning to hate black guy’s, so every time Tony and Morty saw a black guy in Jackson Park, they beat the guys.

But, there was also the girl: Edna Purcell. Morty’s love. She made Morty happy, and she made everything wonderful for Morty. In Chicago there were beginning to be race riots. So the bored boys became exited, and now they really want to beat some jigs. Next days the “gang” were on negroes hunting.