Editors
Lean’tin L. Bracks is professor of English and African American literature at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is an accomplished academician and currently serves as chair of the Department of Arts and Languages, discipline coordinator for English, and interim director of the W. E. B. Du Bois University Honors Program. Her scholarly interests include slave narratives, biographies, women of the African diaspora, and African American studies, all resulting in publications that reflect her breadth of interests. Dr. Bracks is author of African American Almanac: 400 Years of Triumph, Courage, and Excellence (2013) and Writings on Black Women of the Diaspora: History, Language, and Identity (1997), as well as editor of the university text The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (2003) and an autobiographical essay in Children of the Changing South: Accounts of Growing Up During and After Integration (2012). As editor and contributor to scholarly and cultural resources, her contributions include pieces in the books Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009), African American National Biography (2008), Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011), African American Almanac, 11th ed. (2010), Notable Black American Men (1999), and Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (1999), along with writings in the scholarly journals Black Scholar and Nineteenth-Century Prose. In addition to receiving an honorary degree from her undergraduate institution, Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, Bracks has been recognized by her peers with Outstanding Teaching Awards in the Humanities and the Excellence in Service Award for her many administrative roles.
Jessie Carney Smith is dean of the library and William and Camille Cosby Professor in the Humanities at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. A noted scholar, educator, and librarian, she has written extensively on African American biography, culture, and librarianship, producing several award-winning works. The long list of writings she has produced or edited include Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections (1977); Ethnic Genealogy (1983); African American Almanac, 8th ed. (2000); Notable Black American Women (1992); Notable Black American Women: Book II (1996); Notable Black American Women: Book III (2003); Notable Black American Men (1999); Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007); Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006); Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011); Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events, 3rd ed. (2013); and The Handy African American History Answer Book (2014). Dr. Smith is also co-editor (with Linda T. Wynn) of Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009). In addition, she writes the introduction for the Who’s Who among African Americans series.
Contributors
Glenda Marie Alvin is assistant director for Collection Management at the Brown-Daniel Library at Tennessee State University in Nashville. In addition to her master’s degree in library service, she has a master’s degree in U.S. history prior to 1877. Alvin has published biographies in the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011). She has also published articles in library periodicals and currently writes a column, “Collection Management Matters,” for the journal Against the Grain.
Sharon D. Brooks is a librarian in media services at the Frederick Douglass Library at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland. She has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011).
Jemima D. Buchanan is a high school English teacher in Baltimore City. She has previously contributed to the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011) and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the Department of English at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Amanda J. Carter is a recent graduate and processing archivist who was awarded an archival assistantship at the Modern Political Archives of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy in Knoxville, Tennessee, before receiving an IMLS archival fellowship at the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Carter is also an avid researcher and writer with a passion for tracing and weaving previously overlooked minority and women’s histories into the broader history of our culture.
Linda M. Carter is associate professor of English at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is coeditor of Humanities in the Ancient and Pre-Modern World: An Africana Emphasis, 3rd ed. (2009); Humanities in the Modern World: An Africana Emphasis, 2nd ed. (2001); Images of the Black Male in Literature and Film: Essays and Criticism (1994); and James Baldwin: In Memoriam (1992). Dr. Carter has written more than one hundred articles on African American literature and culture that have appeared in various journals and references.
Adenike Marie Davidson is professor of English and gender studies and department chairperson of English and foreign languages at Delaware State University in Dover. She is author of The Black Novel: Imagining Homeplaces in Early Africa American Literature (2008) and has written articles about gender in African American literature. Her current research focuses on negritude, the New Negro Movement, and gender.
Rebecca S. Dixon is associate professor of English and women’s studies and coordinator of the Women’s Studies Program at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Her areas of research are postcolonial studies, African diasporic literature, and gender studies. One of Dr. Dixon’s most recent publications is “Slow Your Roll(le), You Ain’t Going No Where, Girl: The Conflicted Space of Freedom in African American Women’s Literary Tradition” (2012). Her current research is on black British author Caryl Phillips.
De Witt S. Dykes Jr. teaches African American history, American history, history of African American women, history of the Civil Rights Movement, African American urbanization, history of American families, and history of American cities at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He has published numerous biographical articles in reference books and several book chapters. Dr. Dykes has been both an active member and officer in national, state, and local historical and genealogical societies.
Elizabeth Sandidge Evans is reference and government documents librarian at the William R. and Norma B. Harvey Library at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. She is a contributor to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011).
Marie Garrett has served as librarian at Johnson Bible College, Milligan College, and the University of Tennessee. In retirement, she copyedits books for the University of Tennessee Libraries’ Newfound Press. In addition to professional articles, Garrett has written biographical essays for Notable Black American Women, Notable Black American Men, the Encyclopedia of African American Business, the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture.
Angela M. Gooden is director of the Community Engagement Center in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. She has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011).
Delano Greenidge-Copprue is professor of humanities at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He has written three books and hundreds of scholarly articles and reviews on all aspects of popular culture, the arts, and history. His next book will include a novel on baseball and a critical study of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts.
Robert L. Hall served as curator of the Museum at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, where he served as associate director of education until his recent retirement. Hall has created museum and city tours on African American art and lectured on art. He was also curator of the Anacostia Community Museum’s art exhibitions. These included A Creative Profile: Artists of the East Bank; On Their Own: Selected Works by Self-Taught African American Artists; The Art of Charles Smith; The Quilt; In Celebration of Black Men; New Visions: Emerging Trends in African American Art; and Anacostia Museum Collects: The Art of James A. Porter.
Debra Newman Ham is professor of history at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She specializes in African Americans, the African diaspora, and public history. Dr. Ham previously worked as an archivist, manuscript historian, and African American history specialist at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Her publications include Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives (1984) and The African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture (1993). She is also chief curator of an online Library of Congress exhibit entitled The African American Odyssey: Quest for Full Citizenship (1998) and an exhibit catalog of the same name (1998).
Gloria Hamilton is head of Acquisitions and Rapid Cataloging at the University of Chicago Library. She has contributed to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011).
Helen R. Houston is a retired professor of English at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Her publications include The Afro-American Novel, 1965–1975: A Descriptive Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Material (1977) and articles in the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009), Notable Black American Women (1992), Notable Black American Women: Book II (1996), Notable Black American Men (1999), the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011), and the Oxford Companion to African American Literature.
Aisha M. Johnson is special collections librarian at the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has investigated diversity needs in the field of library and information science, which sparked her commitment to improving the field’s diversity needs and conditions of historically black college and university (HBCU) archives. Johnson is currently a Ph.D. candidate in information studies at Florida State University’s School of Information, where she examines southern public library history of African Americans.
Gladys L. Knight is an independent scholar and freelance writer. She is author of Icons of African American Protest: Trailblazing Activists of the Civil Rights Movement (2008); Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television (2010); and the forthcoming Pop Cult Places: Places in American Popular Culture.
Sarah-Anne Leverette is a graduate student in special education at Norfolk State University in Virginia. She coached the Hampton University Freddye T. Davy Honors College debate team to first place in 2011, at the National Association of African American Honors Programs’ Conference. She also coaches the Hampton University Honda Campus All-Star Challenge team.
Cheryl E. Mango-Ambrose is a doctoral student in history and research assistant at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also a history instructor at the Community College of Baltimore County. Her major research areas are African American, African diasporan, and twentieth-century U.S. history, with special attention to African American religion and historically black college and university (HBCU) history. Mango-Ambrose’s dissertation research focuses on black landownership in antebellum America.
Vivian Martin is a retired assistant professor from Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tennessee; a licensed attorney in New York; and an active layperson in the United Methodist Church. She has studied black church life for more than thirty years and previously published articles about the black church.
Joy A. McDonald is assistant professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. She has been a contributor to the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896–2006 (2009), the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011), and Great Lives from History: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (2011). In 2013, she cowrote an article for Editor and Publisher entitled “Daily Newspaper Advertising in the 21st Century.” Her current area of interest is media ethics and entrepreneurship in journalism.
Soncerey L. Montgomery is associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications and interim director of the Honors Program at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is also author of The Heart of a Student: Success Principles for College Students (2011).
Fletcher F. Moon is associate professor and head reference librarian at Tennessee State University in Nashville. He has previously contributed writings to several reference works, including the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011), and edited a variety of book projects and online publications. Moon is also an accomplished musician and ordained minister and has worked professionally in music, television production, advertising/public relations, and ministry.
Jewell B. Parham is professor of black arts and literature, children’s literature, and freshman composition in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy in the School of Liberal Arts at Tennessee State University in Nashville. She has written eclectic profiles and topics for publication. Some of these include profiles for Notable Black American Men (1999), Notable Black American Men: Book II (2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011). Other publications include such topics as “National Black Arts Festival,” “National Black Theater Festival,” and “racial profiling” in the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture. Parham has also written an electronic publication, “Virtual Learning for Writing the Research Paper” (2007).
Andrea Patterson-Masuka is assistant professor in the Department of Mass Communications at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has coedited two customized communication textbooks and a cultural reader, authored four book chapters, and coauthored a journal article. In addition, Patterson-Masuka has presented at more than sixteen scholarly conferences. Her primary areas of research are the basic communication course, communication education, communication pedagogy, and critical intercultural communication.
Sheila R. Peters is associate professor of psychology at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and former interim director of the Race Relations Institute at Fisk. She is an author and regional and national presenter on issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural competence. Peters has been a contributor to the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture and the Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, as well as a coauthor of “Location, Location, Location: Residential Segregation and Wealth Disparity,” in Race and Wealth Disparities: A Multidisciplinary Discourse (2008). Some of her presentations on cultural issues include “Critical Dialogues: Building and Sustaining Diversity in the Academy,” “The Flight of the Black Athlete,” and “Building a Covenant Community.”
Marsha M. Price is administrative specialist to the director of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in English (creative writing) at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She previously served as a proofreader for the university’s student newspaper, the Spokesman, and as a staff writer for Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries’ newsletter, the Messenger.
Myron T. Strong is instructor of sociology at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Maryland. Dr. Strong’s specialties are race, masculinity, social relationships, and ideology. He is author of academic articles and book chapters about masculinity, pop culture, race, ideology, family, and chemistry in numerous journals and texts. These include Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research; Social Problems: A Case Study Approach, 3rd ed. (2004); the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (2011); Journal of Pyrotechnics; Postcolonial Composition Pedagogy: Using Culture of Marginalized Students to Teach English Composition; and Letters from Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out (2005).
Christopher Allen Varlack is lecturer in the Department of English and Language Arts at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. His research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, with an emphasis on race. He is author of several articles on gender, race, and politics that have appeared in such multiauthored reference works as Critical Insights: Zora Neale Hurston (2013), Defining Documents in American History: Manifest Destiny and the New Nation (2013), and Critical Insights: The Slave Narrative (2014). Varlack’s current research is focused on the alternative intellectual strategies of the Harlem Renaissance intelligentsia.
Tanya E. Walker is assistant Professor of English at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she teaches American literature, African American literature, and dramatic studies courses. Dr. Walker’s research areas include African American women’s drama, black feminist criticism, and black speculative fiction. Her current research project focuses on depictions of sexual violence in contemporary African American women’s drama.
Leland Ware holds the title Louis L. Redding Chair and Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. He has also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Ware is coauthor (with Robert Cottrol and Raymond Diamond) of Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution (2003). His most recent book, Choosing Equality: Essays and Narratives on the Desegregation Experience (coedited with Robert L. Hayman, with a foreword by Vice President Joe Biden), was published in 2009.
Faye P. Watkins is dean of University Libraries at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida. She has worked in academic libraries for fourteen years. Her primary areas of interest are the development of information literacy skills and the promotion of lifelong enjoyment of learning and reading.
Anthony Williams is associate professor of music and university organist at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He previously served as director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Dr. Williams’s research interests include American music, jazz, and organ music written by black composers. His doctoral dissertation focuses on black composer John W. Work III. Active as a concert organist, he has performed extensively throughout the United States.
Linda T. Wynn is assistant director for State Programs at the Tennessee Historical Commission and a member of the faculty at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she teaches in the Department of History and Political Science. She coedited (with Jessie Carney Smith) Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009) and (with Bobby L. Lovett) Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee (1996). Wynn also edited Journey to Our Past: A Guide to African American Markers in Tennessee (1999). She has contributed to The History of African Americans in Tennessee: Trials and Triumphs and Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times, as well as book reviews to Tennessee Historical Quarterly.