The Baltimore Solutions

The death of Freddie Gray shocked a nation in a way that his life did not. Nonetheless, it's important to know how Gray lived as much as how he died -- because his story illustrates how hard it is for the residents of Sandtown-Winchester, his neighborhood in West Baltimore, to succeed.

Gray was born prematurely to a mother who said she couldn’t read and had been a frequent heroin user. Court documents suggest he suffered severe lead poisoning from the crumbling paint in his childhood home. When he was old enough to have finished high school, a psychologist assessed his academic ability at the third- or fourth-grade level. His criminal record began less than two months after his 18th birthday, narrowing whatever job prospects he might have had. Not long after that, he did a two-year stint in state prison.