John Hope Franklin, historian, discusses his life and the racial inequality he witnessed. He also talks about John Hope and W. E. B. Du Bois. Dr. Franklin also talks about his Jefferson Lectures, Thomas Jefferson, and slavery.

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.

Renault Robinson, founder of the African American Patrolman's League in Chicago, and Robert McClory, journalist and author of a biography of Robinson, "The Man Who Beat Clout City," discuss Robinson's life and court case, Robinson v. Chicago Police Department. Robinson recalls how he was seen as a model policeman until he created the Afro-American Police League, when the Police Department started treating him differently.