Richard J. Powell, author, editor and art history professor, earned a Ph. D. at Yale University. He is currently the department chair of Art History at Duke University. He specializes in American and African American Art. He wrote Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century, a comprehensive look at African American art forms, and edited Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, he was co-curator of an exhibit organized by the Addison Gallery of America Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. A catalog of the exhibit was published under the name To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.