This book argues for a new reading practice. Rather than approach art and literature from marginalized groups as examples of protest or as responses to “dominant” culture, it demonstrates the power of reading through the lens of achievement, using case studies from black expressive culture. Even while bombarded with racist and sexist violence, African Americans remain focused on defining, redefining, and pursuing success. By examining canonical examples of black women’s cultural production, this study reveals how African Americans keep each other oriented toward accomplishment through an ongoing, multivalent community conversation. Analyzing widely taught and discussed works from the 1860s to the present (via Michelle Obama’s public persona), the book traces “homemade citizenship”—the result of practices of making-oneself-at-home, practices of affirming oneself while knowing violence will answer one’s achievements and assertions of belonging. The texts examined include Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes; Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868), Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy (1892), Pauline Hopkins’s Contending Forces (1900), Nella Larsen’s Quicksand (1928), Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959), Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness (1969), Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), and Michelle Obama’s first lady persona. [220 of 225 words]