Book excerpt: The stories of the first heroic black men and women who joined Alcoholics Anonymous, told wherever possible in their own words, recorded freely and frankly. The story begins with St. Louis (January 24, 1945); followed by Chicago (March 20, 1945), along with the factory and foundry towns which spread eastwards as suburbs. Later that same year (April 1945) came the story of Dr. James C. Scott, Jr., M.D., the black physician who founded the first black A.A. group in the nation¿s capital, and was the first black A.A. member to get his story in the Big Book. The book concludes with the story of Joe McQuany (March 10, 1962) of the Joe and Charlie tapes, the most famous black figure in A.A. History. The lives of thousands and thousands of alcoholics around the world were saved by listening to recordings of his careful page-by-page explanation of the message of the Big Book. The powerful spiritual messages of all these brave men and women struck the hearts of everyone who heard them speak.