Gail Milissa Grant

Gail Milissa Grant was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri at the cusp of the modern civil rights movement. She is currently a writer and public speaker, based in Rome, Italy. Her first book, At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family's Journey Toward Civil Rights, won the Benjamin Franklin Book of the Year 2009 for autobiography/memoir and also received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.  Ms. Grant has presented her book and lectured on civil rights history at over eighty venues, including Oxford University, Columbia University, New York University, Mohammed V University (Morocco), the Smithsonian Institute, and numerous US embassies throughout Europe. Her past careers include diplomacy and university teaching (art and architectural history) at Howard University in Washington, DC. As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency and the U.S. State Department, she was assigned to Norway, France and Brazil, and did extensive press advance work for three U.S. presidents on four continents.