This history of African Americans begins with the first Africans who were captured and enslaved, and then moves up through the present day. “The people remember that Great Migration to new lands, to new borders where sharecropping hands were now factory machine fingers. The people toiled and labored, working new roads, the houses, the skyscraping towers reaching for that great big American sun.” The naïve-style illustrations and the poetic text provide an unflinching look at Black history by integrating the seven principles of Kwanzaa: umoja/unity; kujichagulia/self-determination; ujima/collective work and responsibility; ujamaa/cooperative economics; nia/purpose; kuumba/creativity; and imani/faith. The inclusion of the principles may make this a mainstay of family Kwanzaa celebrations, but the book also stands on its own as a powerful historical account. (Ages 7-12)