R. Drew Smith, PhD, is a political scientist who serves as professor of Urban Ministry and director of the Metro-Urban Institute at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is a founding co-convener of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race, a global network of scholars, religious leaders, and activists. His publications on religion and public life include more than eighty articles, chapters, and essays, nine edited books, and four themed academic journal issues. He also holds an appointment as Professor Extraordinarious at the Institute for Gender Studies at the University of South Africa.

Stephanie C. Boddie, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and the School of Education at Baylor University where she co-teaches Disrupting Racial Disparities in Health Care. She also is a co-convener of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race, a professor extraordinarius in the Institute for Gender Studies at University of South Africa, a faculty associate at the Center for Social Development at Washington University and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society. She is coauthor of more than sixty journal articles, chapters, and reports, and of several books and short films.

Bertis D. English, PhD, is a professor of history at Alabama State University in Montgomery. He is owner of English Editing Services, LLC; author of the book Civil Wars, Civil Beings in Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt: A History of Perry County; and editor of the International Journal of Africana Studies. His scholarly writings appear in state, regional, national, and global publications.