From slavery and colonial times through the Civil Right Movement and up to the present, Children of Promise vividly evokes the African-American experience through nearly 100 poems, songs, and text excerpts, specially designed for young readers. The text includes folk tales and works by Gwendolyn Brooks, W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Frederick Douglass; while the illustrations reveal intriguing historical photographs as well as reproductions of paintings and sculptures by Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Ben Shahn, Henry O. Tanner, and Romare Bearden. Biographical notes on the artists and writers greatly enhance the educational value of the book.