Meet the authors

Biography contributor

Joyce Aschenbrenner

Picture book contributor

Julia Finley Mosca

History writer

Kadir Nelson

Photo by Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0 · cropped

Reference editor

Karen Cotton McDaniel

Kentucky

Picture book contributor

Kwame Alexander

Photo by Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0 · cropped

Poet and playwright

Langston Hughes

Photo by Underwood & Underwood / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution · CC0 1.0 · cropped

History writer

Leon F. Litwack

Biography contributor

Lewis Porter

Playwright and activist

Lorraine Hansberry

Photo by Uncredited photographer / Random House, 1965 first-edition dust jacket · Public domain · cropped

Picture book contributor

Lupita Nyong'o

Photo by John Sears · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped

History writer

Lynne Fauley Emery

Memoir contributor

Malcolm X

Photo by Ed Ford / Library of Congress · Public domain · cropped

History writer

Margot Lee Shetterly

Photo by NASA / Bill Ingalls · Public domain · cropped

Biography contributor

Mark Hoffman

Picture book contributor

Mary Hoffman

Picture book contributor

Matthew A. Cherry

Memoirist and poet

Maya Angelou

Photo by Clinton Presidential Library · Public domain · cropped

Memoir contributor

Michael D'Orso

Photo by Trainlog · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped

Memoir contributor

Michaela DePrince

Photo by Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (cropped in source) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped

History writer

Michelle Alexander

Photo by Miller Center, University of Virginia (cropped in source) · CC BY 2.0 · cropped

Fiction writer

Mildred D. Taylor

Memoir contributor

Miles Davis

Photo by Tom Palumbo (cropped in source) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped

Ballet dancer and author

Misty Copeland

Photo by Philip Romano · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped

Speculative fiction writer

N. K. Jemisin

Photo by Laura Hanifin (cropped in source) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped