"I let somebody call me 'nigger.' It wasn't just any old body, either; it was my friend. That really hurt."-- Amitiyah Elayne Hyman Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of a day when black children were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. His eloquent charge became the single greatest inspiration for the achievement of racial justice in America. In her powerful fourth book in the Children of Conflict series, Laurel Holliday explores how far we have come as she presents thirty-eight African-Americans who share their experiences as Children of the Dream. "I was brought up with white Barbie dolls of impossible proportions and long silky blonde hair -- neither of which I possessed. As a child I believed what I was taught, and I wasn't taught to love myself for who I am -- an African-American."-- Charisse Nesbit The unforgettable people we hear from are young and old, rich and poor, from inner cities, suburbia, and rural America. In chronicles that are highly personal, funny, tragic, and triumphant, the contributors tell us what it is like coming of age stigmatized by the color of their skin, yet proud of their heritage and culture. "The early blows to my psyche were not black or white. They were black and white. And I loathed them equally."-- Bernestine Singley For all, Dr. King's dream has been a struggle. Marion Coleman Brown tells of the painful and humiliating process of having her hair straightened by her grandmother so she would took pretty enough to play with a white playmate. Aya de León remembers the confusion of being the biological daughter of a black father while living with her Puerto Rican mother and stepfather. And Antoine P. Reddick writes of growing up, hungry and on welfare, with sixteen brothers and sisters. While the dream has yet to come true, for some, it doesn't look as far away today as it once did. Anita LaFrance Allen battled racism in Georgia's public schools, then went on to graduate from Harvard and become a law professor and dean. As a teenager, college professor Millicent Brown participated in the desegregation of Public schools in Charleston, South Carolina. Reared on welfare, Bernestine Singley is now an attorney, a corporate executive, and a published writer. Here, their stories come alive, in portraits of dreams lost and found, and of the struggle to achieve full opportunity in America today. Their voices, their courage their resilience -- and their understanding -- offer hope for us all. Read Less