Thurgood Marshall became the first African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's his life leading up to that point--from school troublemaker to passionate lawyer--that makes him both accessibly real and a role model to Americans of every color.

"Thurgood Marshall is best known for being the first African-American Supreme Court justice. However, he also was the lawyer who successfully overturned Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which desegregated public schools. Court cases that Marshall presided over are analyzed in this text with important historical and biographical information to help students understand this influential American figure"--

This detailed history traces Obama's arrival as a community organizer self-conscious about his exoticness and his rise to the top of Chicago politics in his 2004 primary campaign for the Senate.

Jordan's life is an American success story that is emblematic of the extraordinary journey of black Americans since World War II.