One of the foremost chroniclers of the contemporary black experience offers an honest perspective on the 1980s. Here are crack, AIDS and the Reagan rollback of the major advances of the civil rights movement. Also highlighted are the black performers, athletes and activists who made increasing inroads into the mainstream. This fast-paced, chronological retrospective profiles personalities from Bill Cosby to Louis Farrakhan and explores such flashpoints as the first rap single and the infamous Willie Horton ad campaign.