Jersey City author White looks to keep "Ghetto Mothers" on right track

by Denise D. Gibson/The Jersey Journal
Friday August 14, 2009, 6:24 PM


Cheryl White holds her book 'Ghetto Mothers' in her home. The book encourages mothers to keep children on the right track in life. White will have a book-signing Sunday.

Cheryl K. White made plenty of mistakes in her younger days. While some might hide them, White wants other people to know about her former troubles and learn from them.


The 51-year-old Jersey City resident is hoping that her autobiography, "Ghetto Mothers," will motivate young people to turn around their lives like she did nearly two decades ago. It's about growing up in Jersey City, battling drug addiction, being a teenage mother, and finding her place in the world.

It's also about a church pastor's tough love and how it changed her life.

"I always had a passion for writing," White said. "I'm trying to get my message across to the young mothers out there."

Her first book-signing is Sunday at 1 p.m. at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, 4749 Kearney Ave., in Jersey City. White will also have a book-signing at B. Dalton bookstore at the Newport mall in Jersey City Saturday, August 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. The book will be sold in paperback for $19.99 and hardcover for $29.99. She wants to stop the cycle of teenage unwed mothers.

In her book, White advises the young women she calls "ghetto mothers" to "be a role model for your children by setting good examples ... negative and bad habits are things most children pick up from their parents" and "make sure your are mentally, emotionally, and financially ready to be a mother."

White speaks from experience. She says four generations in her family included a teenage unwed mother.

"There's hope," she said. "I've been there. I lived it. Now my granddaughter is 19, graduating nursing school and isn't an unwed teen mom. She broke the vicious cycle."

White credits her church leader, Pastor Robert L. Blount for helping her kick drug addiction in the early 1990s and take better care of her children.

"Pastor Blount helped me to get on my feet," White said. "He forced me into an outreach program when I went to him for help paying my rent."

But she also had to want to change. "I got sick and tired of living that way, hurting my children," White said. "I had to admit that I had a problem, admit that I needed help."

White, who has been clean of drugs for almost 18 years, plans to finish her bachelor's degree to become a professional writer and write another book to serve as a message to young fathers.