A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak

The wisdom of our elders is our most valuable resource. In A Wealth of Wisdom, a collection of stories, experiences, and observations of more than fifty African Americans, ages seventy and over, extraordinary men and women explain how we as a nation got to where we are. With accounts by everyone from Maya Angelou and Ray Charles to Robert Guillaume and Coretta Scott King, these pivotal leaders -- representing every region in the nation and covering a wide range of professional and personal lifestyles -- take us behind their historic public moments to their underlying personal realities.

The editors collected these stories as part of the National Visionary Leadership Project, an organization that preserves and recounts the lessons learned from our country's African American elders so that the young people of today can be great leaders of tomorrow. As Geoffrey Holder declares, "Find your great-aunt or your favorite godmother, and ask them questions. They'll give you all the answers -- their way. They are the writers of the book."

Camille Cosby is a producer and educator. She coproduced the Tony Award-nominated Having Our Say, which won a 1999 Peabody Award for television, and has also served as executive producer of numerous film projects.

Renee Poussaint is a veteran network journalist and winner of three Emmy awards. She is the president and CEO of Wisdom Works, Inc., a major documentary production company, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Maryland’s Academy of Leadership.