These essays will rock your mind and nurture your soul They are about identifying and using the power we have as members of the American body politic to work together for our common good. The essays also emphasize our mutual dependency and cover a range of topics from personal and spiritual development to issues that impact our interactions with one another in the public sphere: the environment, economics, entertainment, mass transit, politics, and race relations.

Janet Cheatham Bell's riveting memoir recounts her experiences coming of age as an African American girl in Indianapolis during the 1930s to the mid-1960s. In taut chapters, Bell introduces the reader to a life defined largely by race and racial discrimination. She begins with her birth in 1937 and her parents' early struggles after relocating to Indianapolis from Tennessee. Bell describes her first job as a maid in a wealthy white household and her humiliating experiences at a "white" high school. She describes experiences of racism at Indiana University and how she copes with personal...