This book presents the stories of 10 African American men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day.

Benjamin Banneker: surveyor of the sky -- Frederick Douglass: capital orator -- Booker T. Washington: polished pioneer -- W.E.B. DuBois: erudite educator -- A. Philip Randolph: always striding ahead -- Thurgood Marshall: Mr. Civil Rights -- Jackie Robinson: game-changer -- Malcolm X: spark-light -- Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolent visionary -- Barack H. Obama II: holding on to hope.