ALMOST 40 YEARS ago in North Philadelphia, Dawn Staley was walking home from high school one afternoon with a friend from the neighborhood, when something remarkable happened. Or more to the point, didn't happen.
She lived in a rowhome in the Raymond Rosen housing projects. Her friend, Charles Gathers, had grown up in the high rises across Diamond Street but had recently moved to Staley's side of the projects. The two of them, and Gathers' cousin Patrice, were making their way back to Raymond Rosen, he remembers, when a man jumped in front of them and tried to grab Patrice.