William R. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the senior associate director emeritus of its Center for the Study of the American South. The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1997-2001), Ferris has written or edited ten books, created fifteen documentary films, and his most recent work, Voices of Mississippi, won two Grammy Awards for Best Liner Notes and for Best Historical Album in 2019. Lonnie G. Bunch III is the fourteenth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He is the first African American and first historian to serve in that role. Bunch served as curator of history and program manager for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles from 1983 to 1989. He is author of A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump.