Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.

"It's 1943, and the White House is busy with the war effort. Diana Hopkins only wants to help, but doesn't know what a ten-year-old can do - until the Roosevelts come up with the idea of Victory Gardens, and Diana suddenly has the important job of Victory Gardener for the White House"--