Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington is freed when he is nine years old. To help support his family, he then works as a salt packer, coal miner, and house servant. All the while, he longs to become educated and to educate others. Poverty, racism, and other obstacles stand in his way. Will he overcome them all, or will the many barriers prove stronger than his unwavering determination?

A biography of one-time slave, known for his commitment to education and his role in establishing Tuskegee Institute.

"A memoir of a black man who was born a citizen of New York, kidnapped and sold as a slave in 1841, and rescued from a cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1853"--

Surveys outstanding African-American men and women and describes their contributions in the fields of science, industry, religion, education, and politics.

Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.

Chronicles the life of controversial militant leader Malcolm X.

Describes how the twentieth-century African American poet Langston Hughes affirms his vocation as a writer through the composition of his famous 1921 poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."