Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have been remembered as slaveholders, bigots and inciters of racial violence, but were leaders generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans really much better? And what of all the presidents whose interactions with black America are hardly considered at all? Over the course of 45 chapters Kimberley examines the condition of black America through the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country.