The Rev. Jaki Hall is an associate minister at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore, where she serves as president of the forty-member Ministers and Evangelists Council and teaches English in the Determined Biblical and Theological Institute. She also teaches composition and research at her alma mater, Morgan State University, having formerly taught at six other area universities. For nearly twenty years, she was a TV reporter, talk show host, and publisher of The Black Pages and Trés Chic Magazine.

Ron Henderson, Ph.D., earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Wayne State University in Detroit and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in educational sociology from Michigan State University. He taught sociology at the University of Florida-Gainesville for three years. He retired from the National Education Association after twenty-nine years as manager of the surveys division, associate director of research, and director of research. He previously worked for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., and the National Institute of Education. He is the author and co-editor of numerous professional publications.