Shirley Ann Wilson Moore received her Ph.D. in American history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. She is Professor Emerita of History at California State University, Sacramento, where she taught American history, specializing in African American history, African American Western history, and the history of African American Western women. In 2019, Dr. Moore's book, Sweet Freedom's Plains: African Americans on the Overland Trails, 1841-1869 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016), won the Barbara Sudler Award for best non-fiction work on a western American subject authored by a woman. Her first book, To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910-1963 (University of California Press, 2000), was the recipient of the Richmond Museum's Historical Preservation Award (2000). Her second book, African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), co-edited with Quintard Taylor, received the American Library Association's CHOICE Award (2004).
