Kendra Gage is a Post-Doctoral Scholar in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the department of History. Her research and teaching focus on 20th Century America, the American West, Black Feminist Thought and the Civil Rights Movement. She is currently reworking her manuscript for publication "Creating the Black California Dream: Virna Canson and the Black Freedom Struggle in the Golden State's Capital, 1940-1988," which used the life of Virna Canson as lens for incorporating Sacramento's activities within the larger historical framework of the Civil Rights Movement.