Fortt Knox

The key to understanding this moment in American history, in black history, is empathy. That's what Darren Walker is saying. And one could argue that if anybody's positioned to understand this dizzying landscape, he is. Walker grew up poor in rural Texas, became one of the first kids in the Head Start program, and made it big on Wall Street in the 1980s. But his true calling was even bigger: He's now president at the Ford Foundation, an $11-billion philanthropy giant that's aiming to address social justice and inequality around the globe.