During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. As the New Deal began, a "black Brain Trust" joined the administration and began documenting and addressing the economic hardship and systemic inequalities African Americans faced. They became known as the Black Cabinet, but as Jill Watts recounts, the environment they faced was reluctant, often hostile, to change. Profiling these remarkable individuals, this history assesses their inspiring successes and heartbreaking defeats.