Carol E Leutner grew up in Baltimore in mid-twentieth century America, aware of the discrimination against Black people. In her mid-twenties in her early work with the Navajo Nation she realized the full extent of institutionalized and legalized racism. An interracial marriage, managing a statewide presidential campaign and raising two biracial daughters, one of them handicapped, in the nation’s capital taught her just how entrenched White male power was. Carol’s passage to race consciousness is framed by historical events and the cultural environment in which she was raised. How she chose to respond determined her personal and professional development as a woman, wife, mother and lawyer. Race Consciousness is a story of a woman who sees her homeland, in all of its magnificence and for all of its shortfalls, as an opportunity to embrace change that can address our challenges ahead. Dr. Julian Thomas, former Agricultural Counselor and Alternate Permanent Representative to the U.N. food agencies in Rome says, “Carol takes us on a journey to show how attitudes and policies about race and gender affect our economic lives and charts her personal growth and development in the process.”