Lawrence had been his "slave" name; his "original" name is now Amir or Amr Ibn Abdel Aziz. Almost all his contemporaries and comrades call him that. His mom and dad continue to call him Sonny. Now a twenty-something-year-old African - American male from North Central Philadelphia, Amir plans to determine his own future, his path, his fate, not let it be decided by some "system" or accident of birth. He'd grown up in a golden era in America for blacks, relatively speaking. Hope, dreams, pride, and employment were at a zenith. Self-hatred and the internalization of white racist thoughts and assumptions were on the wane. And now he's off to experience the world at large, following in his father's footsteps he travels to Europe where his dad had served during World War II. Come along with Amir and his college friends Omar, SaRon, Yusef, .44 caliber, Fat Frank, Ahmed, and the rest of the crew as they navigate their way through the obstacle course of what constituted American society for young blacks in the 60s' and 70s' and still exists today for most African Americans.