In this open love letter, Dyson praises the defining virtues of the African-American women, famous and unknown, who have inspired him, challenged him, and moved him during his life. From Miss James, the grammar school teacher who first taught dyson Black history to Linda Johnson Rice, who heads the communications empire that publishes Ebony and Jet; from Toni Morrison, whose novels inspired him, as a young welfare dad, to believe in reading and the power of words, to Debbie Bethea, the housecleaner whose hard labors remind him of his mother in Detroit; from civil rights widow Myrlie Evers-Williams to activist and scholar Angela Davis - and many more, including Maxine Waters, Ruth Simmons and Freda Payne - the women in Dyson's pantheon inspire love and admiration. He bears witness to the glories of older women, the strength of church women, and the heartaches of single women - and urges us all to honor the physical, intellectual and spiritual gifts of black women in a society that still is still dominated by white ideals of beauty.