Cover -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Foreword -- Preface -- Chronology -- PART ONE: Blessed by Experiences -- 1. Conversations with a Former President -- 2. Courting the Superdelegates -- PART TWO: A Blessed Beginning -- 3. Inherited Values -- 4. A World without Blinders -- 5. The Young Clyburns -- PART THREE: Finding My Way -- 6. Into the Streets -- 7. Back to the Basics -- PART FOUR: The Charleston Shuffle -- 8. Two Steps to the West -- 9. Two Steps to the East -- 10. Two Steps Forward -- 11. One Step to the Rear -- PART FIVE: Making History -- 12. Trailblazer -- 13. Myth Buster -- PART SIX: A Racial Arbiter -- 14. The Chester Controversy -- 15. The Citadel Confrontation -- 16. The Conway Crisis -- 17. The Confederate Battle Flag -- PART SEVEN: Coming to Grips with Reality -- 18. A Day of Reckoning -- 19. Reaffirming My Goals -- PART EIGHT: The Dream Realized -- 20. Deciding to Run for Congress -- 21. Adventures in Campaigning -- 22. Primary Election Day, 1992 -- 23. General Election, 1992 -- PART NINE: Mr. Clyburn Goes to Washington -- 24. Arriving in Congress -- 25. Playing Hardball Clinton Style -- 26. My First Bill -- 27. Building Friendships -- PART TEN: Treading and Toiling -- 28. Wandering in the Wilderness -- 29. Principles above Politics -- 30. Service above Self -- PART ELEVEN: The Age of Obama -- 31. 3-V Day: Victory, Validation, Vindication -- 32. Barack and Me -- 33. Reforming Health Care -- 34. Reducing the Deficit -- PART TWELVE: Blessed by the Past -- 35. Genuinely Southern -- 36. Proudly Black -- Epilogue -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.