Richard Potter: America's First Black Celebrity

John A. Hodgson, former Dean of Forbes College at Princeton University, is the author of books on Wordsworth and Shelley and the editor of Sherlock Holmes: The Major Stories with Contemporary Essays.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books and the creator of several documentary works, including the PBS series Finding Your Roots.