A spokesperson for Winfrey told CNN the producers of their 2016 interview had relied on information in the published memoir in crafting her introduction. More than one interviewer referred to Moore as born in Baltimore, including Winfrey. The book opens with the line, “This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name.” Later in the same introduction, Moore writes, “We’d grown up at the same time, on the same streets, with the same name.”
Though Moore’s book never explicitly asserts he was born in Baltimore, it does allude prominently to his strong association with the city. Even then, as a student at Johns Hopkins, the world he inhabited while attending a prestigious private university was nothing like the notorious inner-city housing developments of Baltimore where the 2010 book says the other Wes Moore grew up. It wasn’t until he was a 20-year-old undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University that Moore first lived in Baltimore. Moore’s campaign says that when he would visit his mother as a kid, he would often go roller-skating and get his hair cut in Baltimore.
But by then Moore was away at military school in Pennsylvania. Late in the summer before he turned 16, Moore’s mother moved to the middle-class enclave of Pasadena, in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County. After his father’s sudden death when Moore was 3 years old, he then moved with his family to the Bronx, which at the time was beset by crime, drugs and poverty - much as Baltimore was in the 1980s and 1990s. As the book lays out, he spent his early childhood in the suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland, some 30 miles from Baltimore. What that effort reveals is a complicated story of race, identity and the responsibility of public figures to control their own narrative.Īccording to Moore’s website, he wasn’t born in Baltimore but in Washington, DC. In checking out those facts, CNN reviewed dozens of Moore’s public appearances and writings of the past 12 years, as well as other records. The same week, the campaign launched a website, about Moore’s childhood and connections to Baltimore. The letter goes on to allege that “a rival campaign may be responsible for this smear campaign.” His campaign last week sent a letter to the Maryland state prosecutor and the state board of elections, alleging that “false and disparaging information” had been spread about Moore in “an orchestrated attempt” to disparage him. Now Moore’s story has become the subject of conversation in the race. For example, he has repeatedly said that he originally wanted to call his first book “Baltimore Sons.” Other times, he made ambiguous statements about his childhood connections to Baltimore or, in high-profile settings, sat by quietly as others repeated erroneous details.
#ABC DRIVING SCHOOL BALTIMORE MD TV#
While his book lays out the basic details of his life factually, a less accurate version of his Baltimore roots has taken on a life of its own, fueled by more than a decade of assertions by other people in TV interviews that he is a Baltimore native, born and raised in the city.Īt times, Moore has fed that impression himself.
He’s one of the leading primary candidates in a state where the party’s nominee would be heavily favored to win the governor’s race - and, potentially, to rise as a national political figure.īut as he’s entered politics, Moore’s story has come in for a closer examination. Now Moore is seen as a potential up-and-comer in Democratic politics. Moore has since written more books, hosted his own TV show on the Oprah Winfrey Network and spent four years as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, New York City’s largest anti-poverty non-profit. It also helped launch his successful career in media and philanthropy. The book is required reading in many schools in Maryland and across the country, and it fixed Moore in the minds of many as a proud son of Baltimore.
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