A collection of eighteen essays, memoir pieces, and poems addressing race in the United States and written in response to James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew" in which the author lamented that 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, it felt like African Americans were celebrating too soon.

"The tradition" / by Jericho Brown -- Introduction / by Jesmyn Ward -- Homegoing, AD / by Kima Jones -- The weight / by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah -- Lonely in America / by Wendy S. Walters -- Where do we go from here? / by Isabel Wilkerson -- "The dear pledges of our love" : a defense of Phillis Wheatley's husband / by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers -- White rage / by Carol Anderson -- Cracking the code / by Jesmyn Ward -- Queries of unrest / by Clint Smith -- Blacker than thou / by Kevin Young -- Da art of storytellin' (a prequel) / by Kiese Laymon -- black and blue / by Garnette Cadogan -- The condition of black life is one of mourning / by Claudia Rankine -- Know your rights! / by Emily Raboteau -- Composite pops / by Mitchell S. Jackson -- Theories of time and space / by Natasha Trethewey -- This far : notes on love and revolution / by Daniel José Older -- Message to my daughters / by Edwidge Danticat.