Philip Dray was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award for At The Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. It was through his work on this book that he became acquainted with Ida B. Wells and her compelling story. He lives in New York.

Stephen Alcorn was born in the United States and grew up in Italy. A professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, he is an award-winning printmaker, portraitist, and illustrator of over fifty children's books, including Let it Shine, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. He lives in Virginia.