Lorraine Hansberry (author of the book’s text) American author and playwright probably most well-known for her play A Raisin in the Sun which dealt with issues surrounding segregation in Chicago. She was the first African-American female author to have a play on Broadway, accomplishing much even though she died of cancer at just thirty-four years of age, the year after the publication of the first US edition of this book. Hansberry inspired the Nina Simone song To Be Young, Gifted and Black, the title of which came from the subtitle of Hansberry's autobiographical play.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) [signed and inscribed “Best Wishes” on the title page and p.96]
American Christian minister and activist, and perhaps the most prominent leader in the civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights for people of colour in the United States principally through the use of nonviolent civil disobedience. In 1983, his significance to the struggle for racial equality was recognised by an annual federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is celebrated every January, the month of his birth.

Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) [signed on the title page and dated 8-20-78. Inscribed “To Bobby with warmest personal appreciation for your efforts”]
American author, activist, civil rights leader, singer, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.

Jesse Jackson (born 1941) [signed on the title page and inscribed “Keep Hope Alive”]
American activist, Baptist minister and politician. Participated in the Greenville Public Library sit-in and the Selma to Montgomery marches. Was present at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Ralph David Abernathy (1926-1990) [signed on the title page and inscribed “Keep the Faith”]
American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. In 1957 he co-founded the SCLC whose first president was Martin Luther King Jr.

Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born 1932) [signed on the title page]
Early leader in the civil rights movement and a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. He was present at King’s Assassination. Later served as a congressman, being one of the two first African-Americans elected to Congress from the former Confederacy. Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve as Ambassador to the UN. In the 1990s he served as Mayor of Atlanta.

James Arthur Baldwin (1924-1987) [signed on the front endpaper and inscribed “for Bob”]
American writer and civil rights activist. The author of Go Tell it on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son and Giovanni’s Room.

John Lewis (1940-2020) [signed on the front endpaper]
American politician and civil rights activist who served in the US House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020. He helped to organise the 1963 March on Washington, and in 1965, he led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. President Obama gave the eulogy at his funeral.

James Meredith (born 1933) [signed on the front endpaper]
American civil rights activist, writer and political adviser. In 1962 he became the first black student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government. Was later shot and wounded by a white gunman whilst on a solo 220-mile March Against Fear to highlight racism in the South and encourage voter registration.