Anne E. Johnson grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and often visited Chicago with her family. She went to Queens College for a master's degree in musicology, a commute that took her past the remnants of the 1939 world's fair nearly every day. One of her favorite albums was a set of spirituals sung by the Black opera singer Marian Anderson. Inspired by recent books and recordings featuring the Black composers Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, Anne has been keen to learn more about Black women in the classical music scene at the turn of the twentieth century. Writing this book proved the perfect excuse to do that, and discovering the story of Sissieretta Jones was an excellent reward for her research.