Stephen Hanks is a thirty-year genealogist and specialist in African American genealogy. He is author of the book Akee Tree: A Descendant's Quest for His Slave Ancestors on the Eskridge Plantations. Hanks also conducts a genealogy class for the Multnomah County Library. In 2007 he was a contributor to the PBS special by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, African American Lives, which examined the ancestry of Oprah Winfrey. Hanks was a contributor to the 2017 film Priced Out, an investigative documentary on the gentrification of black neighborhoods in Portland. Hanks lives in Portland, Oregon.
