I never saw myself writing a nonfiction book. When I started this book three years ago, the reason was that I discovered that my younger sister wasn't learning black history at all at her high school.

The same thing happened to me when I was in school. Throughout high school, we never learned about black history, especially during Black History Month—not until the very last day, to say the least.

Every time I would ask why we weren't learning about black history in school, which I thought was a crucial part of our education, I never got an answer or was told it wasn't that important. And as a young black girl, that didn't sit right with me at all.

And this is what inspired me to write this book. I believe that the younger generation isn't being properly taught black history the way it should be. And I personally believe that black history is slowly becoming a thing of the past—no pun intended.

What are you being taught when you're learning about black history, especially in school? The Basics. And by the basics, I'm talking about slavery, Harriet Tubman, the Civil Rights Movement, and Martin Luther King Jr., just the tip of the iceberg.

But did you know that King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire was the wealthiest black king in all of history? Did you know that in 1981, Muhammad Ali helped a stranger off a ledge after learning that said stranger would jump? Or that there was a Black Wall Street? Or that the early idea of women's sanitary napkins was invented by a black woman, but she never got the chance to present her idea because of her race?

What you didn't know then or recently learned now, whether you are of a younger or older generation, is what this book is all about.