His admirers call him a military genius, while his detractors label him a cold-blooded killer. Regardless of the characterization, Nathan Bedford Forrest entered the American Civil War as a virtual unknown, but emerged as a Rebel hero and a Yankee villain. As a young adult, the Tennessean worked his way up the economic ladder, operating a livery business and brick yard, and serving as the town constable and coroner. With fierce determination to improve his financial standing, he eventually became a successful slave trader, real estate broker, and cotton planter. By the time the Civil War...

For 37 years, Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. served his country as a United States Attorney, Federal District Judge, and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge. At the time, Johnson was the youngest man in history (at age 37) to be appointed as Federal District Judge, and subsequently played a pivotal role in facilitating desegregation. From his courtroom in Alabama's capitol city, Judge Johnson helped transform Montgomery from the "Cradle of the Confederacy" to the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement." Johnson's judicial edicts, intensely unpopular with the majority of white Alabamians, who...