Anthony Brooks

But when Richardson learned that it was written by a pair of black songwriters, Noble Sissel and Yubi Blake, it absolutely blew her mind.

It thrilled her.

I mean, here's a woman who grew up without any sense of black history, of her history, beginning to discover it.

So that discovery inspires Richardson to record a series of interviews with a number of prominent black Americans for college, for this project.

But it would take a while for her to figure out what to do with all this.

And that's because her dad wanted her to be a lawyer.

There was a lot of pressure on her to go that route.

So after Brandeis, she went on to Harvard Law School.

She got a law degree and ends up landing a job at a corporate law firm in Chicago.

She was successful.

She was well on her way.

But here's the thing.

She never felt completely at home in the world of corporate law.

She always was more interested in acting and the arts, as she told me.

And she said that she was the first black attorney at the firm in Chicago and only the second woman to work there.

And so that had a lot to do with why she didn't want to keep being a lawyer, why she never really felt comfortable in that environment.

So she decides to quit.

Then she became an entrepreneur.

She worked in the cable TV industry for the city of Chicago.

She eventually started a home shopping channel.