Maria Quintana, Author at • Page 2 of 2

Academic Historian

Maria L. Quintana is Assistant Professor of History at Sacramento State University, where she teaches courses on race and empire, civil rights and labor history, immigration history, and Latinx history. She is the author of Contracting Freedom: Race, Empire, and U.S. Guestworker Programs (2022) and received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2016. Before moving to Sac State, she taught at San Francisco State University in the College of Ethnic Studies for three years. She was also a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.

Nellie Stone Johnson (1905-2002)

Social activist and black labor leader Nellie Stone Johnson was born Nellie Saunders Allen in Lakeville, Minnesota in 1905, the eldest daughter of an activist farmer, William R. Allen and a schoolteacher, Gladys Allen. As a child, Nellie worked on her family’s farm near Hinckley, … Read MoreNellie Stone Johnson (1905-2002)

Ann Lane Petry (1908-1997)

Writer Ann Petry was born Ann Lane on October 12, 1908 to pharmacist Peter Clark Lane, Jr. and podiatrist Bertha James Lane in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Like her father, Ann was trained as a pharmacist and practiced in the family’s drugstores in Old Saybrook. However, … Read MoreAnn Lane Petry (1908-1997)

Annie Turnbo Malone (1869-1957)

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Annie Turnbo Malone was born to Robert Turnbo and Isabella Cook in Metropolis, Illinois on August 9, 1869. Her parents were former slaves and her father joined the Union Army during the Civil War. Turnbo attended school in Peoria, Illinois, but she … Read MoreAnnie Turnbo Malone (1869-1957)

William “Bill” Lucy (1933- )

Labor union organizer and leader Bill Lucy was born on November 26, 1933, to Joseph and Susie Lucy in Memphis, Tennessee. Raised in Richmond, California, Lucy studied civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1950s. He then joined the U.S. Navy … Read MoreWilliam “Bill” Lucy (1933- )

Jamaica Kincaid (1949- )

Writer Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson on the Caribbean island of Antigua on May 25, 1949, when it was still under British colonial rule. At age three, Kincaid was taught to read by her mother but was later neglected when three boys were … Read MoreJamaica Kincaid (1949- )

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

Best-selling author, social critic and influential literary figure Richard Wright was born on September 4, 1908, to Nathan Wright and Ella Wilson, both children of slaves, on a plantation near Roxie, Mississippi. His father was an illiterate sharecropper and his mother was a schoolteacher. Finding … Read MoreRichard Wright (1908-1960)