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Sanya Gragg, a University of Memphis grad, has penned a book titled, "Momma, Did You Hear the News?" which shows black children what to do in police encounters.(Photo: Photo of book cover provided by Sanya Gragg)

Its been a minute since Sanya Whittaker Gragg was in Memphis.

A Nashville native, Gragg graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Memphis in 1992, during a time when she was pretty much insulated from the crack cocaine epidemic that raged around her and propelled Memphis murder rate to highs that are now being repeated.

But it was a text from her son in 2012 that made Gragg realize that the collateral damage from that epidemic the presumption by some law enforcement officers and vigilantes that all black men were prone to criminality and dangerousness could also get him killed.

When George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, my son Avery sent me a text saying, OK, mom, now Im scared,' said Gragg, referring to 2012 when Zimmerman, a self-appointed watchman, stalked Martin as he walked home from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., and wound up fatally shooting him after Martin confronted him about following him.

What happened to Trayvon made it real for him.

It made it real for Gragg, as well.

As did the fatal shootings of other unarmed African-American men one of the most recent being in Tulsa, where she lives with her husband, Tulsa University athletic director Derrick Gragg, Avery, who is now 20, Phillip-Raymond, 16, and her 3-year-old daughter, Saniyah.

Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby fatally shot unarmed Terence Crutcher last September during a traffic stop after he didnt respond to commands to stop.

Shelby said she feared for her life. A jury didnt quite buy that, but acquitted her of manslaughter anyway.

Thats why Gragg, torn between her instincts as a mother to protect her sons and her anger at the injustice of them dying at the hands of police or others who might interpret their appearance or actions as threatening, decided to write a book to help black boys live to fight another day.

Her book, titled Momma, Did You Hear the News? explains how to do that.

Through the voice of 10-year-old Avery, named after her oldest son, Gragg shows the anxieties of black boys after they hear of police shootings, and explains, in an easy way, what they can do to avoid becoming a casualty of police overreaction and stereotype.

One boy was eating SkittlesDad, I like to eat them too! Another played his music loud. Just like I sometimes do, reads part of the book.

To reduce that anxiety, Gragg introduced a mantra that she calls, Memorize The 5. The five being:

A-Always Use Your Manners

L-Listen and Comply

I-In Control of Your Emotions

V-Visible Hands Always

E-Explain Everything

Graggs book, which was released in April, was number one in Amazons hot new childrens book releases for a while. It now ranks 32 among Amazons 100 best sellers for childrens books that deal with violence.

Im surprised that its having that kind of success, Gragg said. But thats why I did it from the perspective of a 10-year-old

Ive been talking to my boys about this forevermy fear is that someone is going to see them, and have this preconceived notion of who they are, and they are going to wind up dead.

Graggs fear is justified. And her advice is wise and practical and along the lines of laying down safety rules for children.

But while its great that the University of Memphis can boast of a graduate who wrote a book that will help children deal with one of the most pressing issues of today, it still belies a disturbing reality.

The reality is that Gragg should be writing childrens books about the birds and the bees, or the joys of cooking or reading or exploring a museum.

But because of crimes connected to the drug trade and the stereotypes of black men that have been spawned by it in the 1990s the problem was racial profiling and police stopping black men in luxury cars she had to write a book instructing youths like her sons on how to protect themselves against those who are supposed to be protecting them.

Thats unfair.

But she had to do it because following these rules can make the difference between boys like Avery and Phillip-Raymond coming home to their loved ones in a car or their loved ones coming to see them in a coffin.

I see it as the same as them wearing a seatbelt, Gragg said. It may be uncomfortable, and even somewhat humiliating, but at the end of the day, it will save your life.

All I want is for them to come home alive.

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University of Memphis grad pens book to show black youths how not to get killed by police - The Commercial Appeal