Hanes Walton, Jr. (1941–2013), Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, was an architect of the modern study of African American politics. Over four decades of prodigious research (including 25 books) and conceptual refinement he helped to make the subfield of Black politics an important area of study in political science. His last book was The African American Electorate: A Statistical Portrait.

Robert C. Smith, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, San Francisco State University, is the author of multiple books and articles and of the Encyclopedia of African American Politics. His most recent books are Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same and John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance, as well as the forthcoming From the Bayou to the Bay: The Autobiography of a Black Liberation Scholar and Power, Philosophy and Egalitarianism: Women, the Family and African Americans.

Sherri L. Wallace, Professor of Political Science, University of Louisville, has received awards for excellence in teaching and instructional design and has published articles on college textbook diversity, women of color in academe, race and politics, and community economic development.