Brian Dolinar is the editor of The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers. He taught history and African American studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His articles have appeared in Langston Hughes Review, The Southern Quarterly, and Studies in American Humor.
Margaret Walker wrote poetry, essays, the novel Jubilee, and the biography Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius. she created pioneering programs in the humanities and African American studies at Jackson State University, where she was a faculty member for almost three decades.