In his seminal work, "Souls of Black Folk", W. E. B. DuBois (1903) suggested the only way that African Americans can develop healthy self-concepts within American society is to come to "an understanding" within themselves regarding the duality of their status as African and American. We argue that the nature of "this understanding" varies across African Americans. Our research has attempted to explicate and describe the role that race plays in the psychological lives of African Americans. This research has focused on the racial identities that African Americans hold, the processes by which African Americans transmit attitudes and beliefs about the meaning of race across generations to their children, as well as documenting their experiences with racial discrimination and the consequences of such experiences. Our research program has attempted to place African American's experiences at the center and explicitly recognize their humanity as core assumptions of our analyses. The current presentation provides a brief overview of our work. In doing so, we also honor the legacy of Prof. Charles D. Moody.