Alferdteen Harrison was a professor of history and director of the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center at Jackson State University. She also cofounded the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, the first museum in Mississippi to focus on African Americans in the state. She is author of multiple books, including Piney Woods School: An Oral History and editor of Black Exodus: The Great Migration from the American South, both published by University Press of Mississippi. She continues as a prominent advocate for the documentation and preservation of African American history.
