Essential for Black History Month, this authoritative new series highlights luminaries and favorites of African-American studies.

 Booker T. Washington, born a slave in 1856 and freed after the Civil War, devoted his life to education—for himself and for others. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute taught farming, carpentry, sewing, and other skills to African Americans

 When Colin Powell signed up for the Army Reserve Officers Training Corp in college, he knew that he had found his future. Powell’s natural leadership skills flourished in the military, where he moved up easily through the ranks. In 1989 he became the youngest person—and the first African American—to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military adviser to the president

As a composer, bandleader, and pianist, Duke Ellington topped all other jazz musicians of his day.

For Gwendolyn Brooks, writing was vital to life—"like breathing or eating," she said. Brooks cast her poets’ eye on the daily struggles of ordinary African-Americans and told the truth about racism and urban poverty.

Being thought of as 'a beautiful woman' has spared me nothing in life," says Halle Berry. With her extraordinary beauty, wealth, and an Academy Award for Best Actress, it seems as if Berry has it all.

The story is riveting and legendary: At a time when segregation ruled American life, a sports "experiment" changed history.

The poetry of Langston Hughes pulses with the rhythms of jazz and blues, and the language of the streets. In describing the everyday lives of African Americans, he became the leading African-American poet of the world.

My whole spirit is what I blow on that horn," said Louis Armstrong of his love and commitment to jazz music. Armstrong overcame poverty and adversity to become one of the world's most influential jazz musicians.

Nonviolence is the answer." With powerful words and peaceful actions, Martin Luther King, Jr., led the way. He roused blacks and whites alike to work for a world without racism and segregation.

"I speak to the black experience," says Maya Angelou, "but I am always talking about the human condition." From the child raised by her grandmother in a small village in Arkansas to the writer known as a National Treasure, Angelou has lived a remarkable life.

You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at the same time," said Oprah Winfrey. Many of her fans might beg to differ. After all, Winfrey herself is smart, funny, compassionate, talented—and one of the richest and most powerful women in the world.