American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. looks at America's history from 1861 to 1915, focusing on the destruction of slavery, the Reconstruction Amendments, and African-American resilience in times of racial unrest and drawing parallels to them with the early twenty-first century in the United States.

Let freedom ring! -- Men of color to arms! -- Fraught with great difficulty -- Restored -- The ballot with which to save ourselves -- Go on with your oppressions -- White reign of terror -- To the storm, to the whirlwind -- Moral weakness in high places -- Mighty current.