Franklin Knight, born in Jamaica in 1942, is a professor of Atlantic History in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins, having started teaching in 1973. He was the first African-American professor to be tenured at the university and has received numerous awards and honors for his academic achievements. Professor Knight has published multiple books and articles, as well as directed the History of African Americans at the Johns Hopkins Institutions project. In this oral history, Knight discusses the history of the History Department and the university during his tenure at Hopkins, as well as his own experiences with Latin American scholarship and teaching. This oral history is part of the Mame Warren oral histories series.

Matthew Crenson graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1963 and went on to receive his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1967. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University and has previously worked as the Faculty Director of the university's Baltimore Scholars Program and on the Homewood Institutional Review Board. In this history, Crenson discusses both his time as a student and professor at Hopkins. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.