Benjamin Fagan received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and his B.A. from the University of Iowa. He is the author of The Black Newspaper and the Chosen Nation, editor of African American Literature in Transition, 1830-1850, and co-editor of Visions of Glory: The Civil War in Word and Image. His work has also appeared in journals such as American Literary History, Civil War History, and American Periodicals, as well as in edited collections focused on the Colored Conventions Movement, Frederick Douglass, and antebellum African American literature. His work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Historical Institute, and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. He is also an elected lifetime member of the American Antiquarian Society. He is currently completing a book on Black organizing and Frederick Douglass’s newspapers.