This booklet contains selected background materials, biographical information, anecdotes, and statements documenting contributions made by blacks to American history. Objectives are to call attention to information about blacks which has been systematically excluded from United States history books and to help people understand the life, heritage, culture, and problems of Americans of African descent. Organized in chronological order, the 22 sections focus on black individuals including Dred Scott, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Blanche K. Bruce, George H. White, Homer Plessy, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Ralph J. Bunche, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Percy L. Julian. For each biographical example, information is presented on personal data, the historical period in which the individual lived and worked, types of difficulties overcome by the individual in question, and major contributions. Major topics throughout the biographical sketches focus on the slavery system, prejudice and discrimination, and the civil rights movement. A concluding section presents civil rights-related quotations from Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. (DB)