In The Dream Dancers Volume IV: Heartland, the fiery trial of World War II had produced a hopeful generation of young black Americans. In their rather self-sufficient West Side community, doctors, dentists, community leaders, neighbor owned stores, accountants, tailors, printers, and of course ministers, provided almost all the essential services of daily sustenance. Nonetheless, as they grew to adolescence, this confident and hopeful post-war generation of black children would, in their ever more frequent interactions with their town’s white community, encounter increasingly challenging racism and the dispiriting marginalization of their abilities. All of these elements of America’s racially divided history and culture would come together during mid-1950s as black and white kids came together in four critical and exciting high school years. For many, those years would powerfully change their views of their town, their country, and themselves.