Barbara Ransby is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of African American Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ransby is author of two award-winning books: Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement and Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson.

is the editor of several books, including Howard Zinn Speaks, Voices of a People's History of the United States, which he co-edited with Howard Zinn, and Voices of a People's History of the United States in the Twenty-First Century, which he co-edited with Haley Pessin. He also wrote the introduction for the new 35th anniversary edition of Zinn's classic book A People's History of the United States.