Brenda E. Stevenson is the Nickoll Family Endowed Chair and Professor of History and African American Studies at UCLA. She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. in American History from Yale University. Her work centers on race, racial conflict, gender, African American and U.S. southern history. Her books include: Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South; The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke; the Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender and the Origins of the L.A. Riots and What is Slavery. She is  senior editor of the Encyclopedia of Black Women’s History and co-author of The Underground Railroad. Professor Stevenson is a past John Simon Guggenheim Fellow; a recipient of the Organization of American Historian’s Rawley Prize for the best book on race; the Carter G. Woodson Medallion from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History; the John Blassingame Award from the Southern Historical Society, the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism from Womensenews.org; and the Gold Shield Award from UCLA;  as well as a past fellow of the American Academy in Berlin; the National Humanities Center;  the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences; and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. She currently is the William Andrew Clark Professor at the Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies and completing a book on the black family.