JOHN R. RICFORD is Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University. An internationally recognized authority on African American Vernacular English, he has published several books, scores of articles in scholarly journals, and articles in Discover magazine, among others. He has been quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Jet, and USA Today and on ABC, NPR, and other television and radio stations.
RUSSEL J. RICKFORDussell is a freelance journalist and formerly a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.