Be Don't Just Seem to Be tells the story of Adelaide Parish Brown .  She was born ten years after the end of slavery in Memphis Tennessee.  Adelaide learned at an early age to give service to her community while she was a student at Lemoyne Normal Institute.  She and her husband, Henderson moved to Chicago in 1897.  Henderson worked as a Pullman porter and Adelaide became active as a women's club founder, a suffragett and a child evangelist.  This book tells the story of her life and the life of her family.