In Black Profiles in Courage, [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] focuses on extraordinarily courageous black men and women who typified the virtues of integrity, discipline, and self-respect. Taken together, their lives form a legacy from which African Americans of all ages can draw inspiration, wisdom, and pride. Some of these courageous heroes include Peter Salem - the slave, blacksmith, and volunteer soldier who turned the tide at Bunker Hill; Joseph Cinque - the leader of a. Daring revolt on the slave ship Amistad; Frederick Douglass - a self-taught writer and orator who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous black leaders of the nineteenth century; Harriet Tubman - the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, who was also a spy and scout for the Union Army; Lewis Latimera son of slaves, whose scientific work was integral to the achievements of Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram S. Maxim, and Thomas Edison.