In 1971, Mike Middleton became the third African American to graduate from the University of Missouri Law School. In the 1980s he was hired as the first African American law professor at Mizzou. Mike later served as Interim Vice Provost for Minority Affairs and Faculty Development and Deputy Chancellor, then interim president of the University of Missouri system. He then served as interim president of Lloyd Gaines’s alma mater, Lincoln University.

José Anderson is Founding Director, Stephen L. Snyder Center for Litigation Skills, and professor of law at the University of Baltimore. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Anderson is author of "Genius of Justice: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Reform of American Law," a biography of the legendary lead counsel in the Gaines case.

A fifth-generation Missourian, historian Gary Kremer has served as the executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri since 2004. An author of numerous books on Missouri history, including "Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri", Gary received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Lincoln University and a PhD in history from American University.

Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis is a past-president of the American Psychological Association and a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. At Pepperdine, Thema directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. She is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Clarence Lang is Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and a professor of African American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Among his many publications, he is author of "Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics and Black Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, 1936-75."

Historian Keona Ervin is an associate professor at Bowdoin College and a scholar of African American history and social movements in Missouri. Born and raised in St. Louis, Keona is the author of "Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis." She previously taught at the University of Missouri.

James Endersby is a professor of political science at the University of Missouri and co-author of "Lloyd Gaines and the Fight to End Segregation", the only book to focus entirely on the Gaines case.