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Gates travels to Memphis, Birmingham, and Atlanta—civil rights battlegrounds in the 1950s and '60s—to explore how much they really have changed.

Gates goes inside the notorious housing projects on Chicago's South Side to find out what life is like for America's "underclass." Is there any hope for the fifth of black Americans who are caught up in a culture of criminality, poverty, and despair?

The existence of a small group of African Americans at the heart of the political establishment and the pinnacle of corporate America is something that seemed unimaginable just two decades ago. How did they get there, and what is the significance of their success? Gates travels to Washington, DC, and New York to ask whether this new black power elite represents genuine progress for black America as a whole.

Gates asks whether America's entertainment industry is institutionally racist or whether it is becoming increasingly color-blind in pursuit of the box-office dollar.