This book is published to coincide with the exhibition Rising Above The Kinsey African American Art and History Collection. The documentary value of The Kinsey Collection encompasses 400 years of history and portrays the unparalleled achievements of a people that have succeeded—often against great odds—to create its own identity within the American Dream, an economic and social triumph understood and celebrated the world over. The documents and artefacts shown in this exhibition—the very first display of The Kinsey Collection outside the U.S.—pertains to African emigrants and their life-stories, but, beyond a specific people, they speak for the social engagement and success, inclusion and exclusion, as well as the massive contribution of a minority group in our increasingly globalised world.