Higher Education is an industry that continues to be filled with an underrepresentation of African-American presidents at majority White institutions. Although the number of qualified candidates continues to increase, the number of occupants of the chief role does not. In comparison to White men and women, African-American presidents in higher education often experience biases and unfair hiring practices that are based on race. While it isn't always easily recognizable, the realities are clear: African-Americans seeking to become president are not always viewed as qualified or good fits for the chief role. The problem, is that there aren't nearly enough mentoring or succession planning efforts made to help prepare African-Americans for the role of president, or, to facilitate equal opportunities for African-American administrators to advance into the role of president. The purpose of this single-embedded qualitative study is to explore the role and impact that mentoring has on African-Americans who reach the presidency at majority white institutions, and the role succession-planning framework contributes to their ascendency. To achieve this purpose, semi-structured interviews and open-ended surveys were conducted with African-American male and female presidents. By exploring the lived experiences of 25 African-American male and female presidents, the research sought to uncover emerging themes that explain why they were able to advance to the presidency of higher education. One of the major findings, was that institutions of higher education do not commonly practice succession-planning as only 1 (9%) of the participants said their institution had a succession plan in place when they arrived. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]