In 1964, Muhammad Ali said of his decision to join the Nation of Islam: "I know where I'm going and I know the truth and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want to be."

This sentiment, the brash assertion of individual freedom, informs and empowers each of the four personalities profiled in this book. Author Randal Maurice Jelks shows that to understand the black American experience beyond the larger narratives of enslavement, Emancipation, and Black Lives Matter, we need to hear the individual stories. Drawing on his own experiences growing up as a religious African American, he shows that the inner history of black lives in the twentieth century is a story worth telling.

This book explores the stories of four African American figures and their religious journeys through their autobiographical writings, interviews, speeches, letters, and memorable performances. Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, Eldridge Cleaver, and Muhammad Ali all shared their faiths publicly. Each of these four figures used religion to reconcile deep personal struggles, voice their concerns for human dignity, and reinvent their public image. For them liberation was not simply defined by material or legal wellbeing, but by a spiritual search for community and personal wholeness.