I was born in Danville, Illinois, in 1954, just eleven days after the US Supreme Court announced its decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case and less than a year before a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi.
I had two older brothers, and before my younger brother was born, we had moved to Normal, Illinois. A couple years after he was born, our family moved to Bloomington, Illinois, and that’s where our baby sister, Elizabeth, was born. I attended Holy Trinity Elementary School in Bloomington from kindergarten through third grade, but at the end of third grade, we moved again, this time to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our family moved regularly after that, from Santa Fe to Las Cruces, New Mexico, then to Carmichael, California, then to Dublin, California, and finally to Tempe, Arizona. I started 8th grade at McKemy Junior High in Tempe, and our family stayed put long enough for me to graduate from McClintock High School, Tempe’s second high school, in 1972.
I attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship, married my high school sweetheart after my freshman year, played in the Fiesta Bowl my junior year (we lost) and graduated with a degree in English and a license to teach high school English. I taught English (and coach football and track) at my high school alma mater, McClintock High School, for 10 years.
While teaching at McClintock, I attended graduate school at Arizona State University, eventually earning a masters and doctoral degress in English education. My first university job was at Himeji Dokkyo Unversity, in Himeji, Japan. In 1989, I left Japan for a position in the English department at Brigham Young University, Hawaii; and in 1993, I moved to the English department at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
My wife and I have four children and two granddaughters, and we live at the base of the Wasatch Mountain Range in Provo, Utah.
taniya says
hey your book was good. im doing a project on it so gives mes hes moneys pls 😉
Tianah Stanley says
Good Afternoon Mr. Crowe. I’m an 12 year old young black female from Brooklyn who just started reading your book “Getting Away With Murder: The Truth About The Emmett Till Case.” In my opinion, its a great way to represent a milestone in African American history, to help black kids get some sense of their history, especially when in poor communities. I liked the first chapter. How you explained your opinion of how Emmett’s death really started the civil rights movement, and I totally agree with you. It took a young black child to be murdered for people to realize that we somehow have to make a change, so thank you for showing me that!
Natalia says
The book, Mississippi Trail, 1955 really shows the worlds corruption way back than. What really got to me when the jury knew the Miliam and Bryant were guilty and they choose to look over that, and say their innocent. Your books are really great and they show how people felt.
Dennis A. Ballard says
Hello Christopher, My wife and I spend a great deal of time together lately. I recently retired after 26 years as a teacher, baseball coach and Physical Education teacher. My wife and I have 6 children and 26 grandchildren; all living very close to us except for a son in Eagle Mountain, Utah.
We have a daily routine which includes watching BYU Devotionals. I just walked into my office after watching your BYU presentation from 2019. I felt as if I were watching my own personal story; Catholic family, Ass’t Basketball coach at my high school alma mater; first date with a Mormon girl; didn’t know what a Mormon was. Second date, then a third and fourth. Wanted to spend more time with her so I would spend my Sunday lunch time in her Sacrament meeting and then run back to work at a baseball field in Glendale, California. I was responsible for putting out the bases and raising the flag on Sundays and then of course waiting around, watching games until late in the evening when I did the opposite.
The missionaries were after me but I would literally run out of Church after Sacrament . But I was reading…..about this strange group of wonderful people that I got to meet. Somebody gave me the book by LeGrand Richards…A Marvelous Work and a Wonder. (I tried to read the Book of Mormon but I always fell asleep after a few lines). I picked up this new book by Bro Richards and just opened into the middle of the book and a short scripture jumped out at me….James 1:5; If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…etc. I won’t bother with the details; but to say I called the missionaries and I was baptized three days later.
I sat there and cried as you reviewed my/your life. Thank you very much…I could feel what I am sure your students feel when you are in their presence;
Your newest fan
Dennis Ballard. (Melanie-the Mormon girl)
Emily says
I’m 11 and i really understood getting Away With Murder I liked it to