Tracing the unforgettable tale of a little black girl from a small Ohio town who dared to dream above her station, this memoir captures the larger history of black people in America, from the arrival of Ellamae Simmons' ancestors aboard a slaving vessel in 1775, to the electrifying election of the nation's first African American president.

Ellamae came of age at a time when even the most gifted Negro girls were expected to become domestics in white homes. But Ellamae yearned to study medicine, and she set about creating a world in which she could do just that. For most of her 97...