The 118 entries--ranging from notorious historical figures, political prisoners, pop icons, activists, athletes, artists, feminists, soldiers, and everyday folks--collectively document the evolution of black struggle and achievement in America.

James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Lemuel Haynes, John Cuffe, Richard Allen, Old Elizabeth, Jupiter Hammon, Belinda, Benjamin Banneker, Prince Hall, Jenny Proctor, Peter Williams, Abd ar-Rahman, Austin Steward, Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, John Parker, Osborne Anderson, Mattie J. Jackson, William Wells Brown, Robert Purvis, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Keckley, John Boston, Charlotte Forten, Ann, Octave Johnson, Patsey Leach, John Mercer Langston, Sojourner Truth, Samuel Larkin, John R. Lynch, Booker T. Washington, Lewis Latimer, Henry McNeal Turner, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Matthew Henson, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Jack Johnson, Ethel Waters, Addie Hunton, Harry Haywood, Era Bell THompson, Dorothy West, Richard Wright, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Howard "Stretch" Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Pauli Murray, Nate Shaw, Haywood Patterson, James Cameron, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Conrad Lynn, Marian Anderson, Nelson Peery, Althea Gibson, A. Philip Randolph, Clarence Atkins, Charles Denby, Maya Angelou, Coleman Young, Curtis Morrow, Jane, Paul Robeson, Sunnie Wilson, Coretta Scott King, Constance Baker Motley, Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, James Forman, Melba Pattillo Beals, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Anne Moody, Sharon Robinson, Malcolm X, General Gordon Baker, Gordon Parks, David Parks, Kwame Ture, Martin Luther King, Jr., H. Rap Brown, Angela Davis, George Jackson, elaine Brown, Randall Robinson, LL Cool J, Johnnie Cochran, Margaret Walker, Lee Stringer, Sam Fulwood, Tyrone Powers, Audre Lorde, Jill Nelson, Johnetta B. Cole, Max Roach, Alvin Ailey, Colin L. Powell, Al Sharpton, Bari-Ellen Roberts, Anita Hill, Gary Franks, James McBride, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Kevin Powell, Rev. Bernice King.