This book started out to be a recapitulation of the phenomenal rise to success of my cousin Robert battle who was tapped by the internationally known dancer Judith Jamison to succeed her as only the third artistic direction of the famed Alvin Ailey American dance theater........but somewhere along the way came the realization that Robert's story could not be complete Without including the story of my parents, Anna and Willie Horne, two not unflawed individuals who endured all the indignities of "second class citizenship" but who, nevertheless, passed on to their children-----my brother Jack, my younger sister Bernice, and me---the best family values of which they were capable.