Ralph Ellison, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction for his book "Invisible Man," discusses his early life and education and his life as a writer and lifetime scholar. He speaks on being a musician (trumpet), the joy of music and the Church and how they fit into the lives of African Americans.

Anna Deavere Smith discusses and demonstrates her unique character portrayals from her works "Fires in the Mirror" and "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992."

Using the backdrop of James Baldwin's "Nobody Knows My Name" and Baldwin's feelings that Blacks were ashamed of where they came from, Terkel interviews Professor and Chairman of the Political Science Department of Roosevelt University on his book coauthored with Stokely Carmichael entitled" Black Power: Politics of Liberation in America". Hamilton states that Blacks were taught to hate themselves and leave school believing that. Institutional racism and the deliberate oppression it creates, holds blacks back. Blacks are left out of crucial decision making processes that concern them.

Vine Deloria discusses Native American rights and history focusing on treaties formed and broken by the United State government. Original recording 1965063-3-1 includes music by Buffy Sainte-Marie.