Cicero M. Fain, III, Ph.D., is a fourth-generation Black Huntingtonian. He received his B. A. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his M. Ed. from George Mason University. He is the recipient of the Carter G. Woodson Fellowship from Marshall University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. His teaching career includes positions at Marshall, Ohio University-Southern, Niagara University, and the College of Southern Maryland. He has authored several articles in peer-reviewed journals, including “Buffalo Soldier, Deserter, Criminal: The Remarkably Complicated Life of Charles Ringo,” in the Ohio Valley Journal, which is his current book project. His first book, “Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story,” published in 2019 by the University of Illinois Press was a finalist for the Weatherford Award, and in 2021 the West Virginia Library Association awarded it the Literary Merit Award. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming “Black Appalachia: Race, Place, and Identity,” the follow-up anthology to 1985’s seminal Blacks in Appalachia. He is the Assistant Provost of Access and Opportunities at Marshall University, the Assistant Research Director and Outreach Specialist for the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Initiative, and the Marshall Liaison to the Appalachian Studies Association. He serves on the boards of the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Cabell-Huntington Convention & Visitors Bureau Cabell/Wayne counties, and the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Foundation.