Sikivu Hutchinson is an author and cultural critic who writes about Black freethinkers, atheism and religion’s role in race and gender politics, offering a perspective often missing from mainstream faith coverage. Contact through her website.

Elizabeth McAlister is a professor at Wesleyan University with expertise in Afro-Caribbean religions including Haitian Vodou, Pentecostalism, race theory, transnational migration and evangelical spiritual warfare.

Michael Muhammad Knight is a scholar, author and gonzo journalist whose work covers Islamic studies, American Islam, hadith literature, gender studies, race and theories of the body.

Matthew J. Cressler is a scholar, comics creator and teacher whose work focuses on religion, race and justice. He is also chief of staff for the Corporation for Public Interest Technology. He is the author of Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration (NYU Press, 2017).

In this guide, we offer background, resources, expert sources and related content to help you better report on the religious life of Black Americans.

Gopal Patel is leading faith-based environmental activist who believes in the power of engaged religion and spirituality to address the world’s biggest climate-related challenges. He was the founder of a movement called Bhumi Global, which sought to activate Hindu youth in support of Planet Earth.

Ronilso Pacheco is a theologian interested in democracy, race, fundamentalism, and extremism. He is the author of the books Teologia Negra (Black Theology) and Occupy, Resist, and Subvert. He is a frequent contributor to various media outlets in Brazil.

Heidi Beirich is an expert on the American and European far right, including white supremacist, anti-immigrant, antigovernment and other extremist movements. In 2020, with Wendy Via, Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism to monitor and counter increasingly transnational hate movements.

Kevin Goldberg a vice president and First Amendment expert at Freedom Forum, where he works to educate the public on the importance of the First Amendment and oversees Freedom Forum’s network of experts on issues of free expression and its relation to religious and other forms of speech.