The story of anthropologist Melville Herskovits (1895-1963), whom Harvard professor Vincent Brown calls "the Elvis of African-American studies." The son of Jewish immigrants, Herskovits founded the nation's first major African studies program at Northwestern, wrote influential books, and broke new ground in his studies of cultural identity and black culture. The doc also explores who has the right to define another's identity, and makes use of archival footage, animation and expert interviews.