Thank you to Cheryl Brown Henderson and the Brown Foundation for guiding me in my research and providing background information, educational resources and contacts. I thank John Watson and Joan Johns Cobb for speaking to me over the phone and sharing their stories. A special thanks to Orlando J. Camp for permitting me to quote him, and to Charles Hammond, President of the Board of the Milford Museum. And I thank June Shagaloff Alexander for generously telling me about assisting Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Many people helped me with the detective work of text and photo research. Without their persistence and dedication I would not have been able to include a great number of vital images and details. So I thank the following:
Phillip E. Stamps, Jr., son of Shirley Barbara Beulah Stamps; Criss Miranda; Sylvia Mendez; Duncan Tonatiuh; Teri Kanefield; Kia Campbell, Duplication Services, Library of Congress; Michele Casto, Special Collections Librarian, Washingtoniana; Julian Hipkins, III, Curriculum Specialist and Missippi Teacher Fellowship Project Director; Debra Hashim and Laura McClure, National Museum of American History; Nancy Sherbert, Curator of Photographs, Kansas State Historical Society; Randy Goss, Delaware Public Archives; Heather Glasby, Archivist, National Archives at Philadelphia; Anne McDonough and Jessica Richardson, The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; Kassandra A. Ware, Spelman College; Bryan Collars, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Gretchen Krause and Janet Tramonte, Supreme Court of the United States; Elizabeth Pitt, Lincoln University; Larissa Franklin, Getty Images; Matthew Albright, The News Journal of Wilmington; and Gary Emeigh.
As always, I am deeply grateful to my wonderful editor Mary Cash who responded to the idea for this book immediately and worked with me to make it happen. At Holiday House I also thank our superb designer Kerry Martin, our beloved publisher John Briggs, and the whole production, promotion and marketing team.
I will always be indebted to my friend, mentor and agent George Nicholson (1937–2015), who thought it was important to write about the five cases that comprised Brown v. Board of Education. And I thank my writer friends at Lunch Bunch and Third Act for their valuable comments and warm support. Last of all, thanks to my son Andrew for patiently helping me solve technical problems, and to my husband Michael for his belief in this book.