Time before the time -- The broken links -- Africans confront the American situation -- Freedom and revolutions without end -- The great freedom war -- Exploring new routes to equality and justice -- From Harlem we charge up the racial mountain -- Trouble in paradise -- We will be free by any means necessary -- Social and moral challenges are everywhere -- The rise of social consciousness : an unfinished agenda -- Appendix I: A chronology of African American history -- Appendix II: Some notable African Americans in space -- Appendix III: African American inventors and technologists -- Appendix IV: African American firsts.