John H. Bracey, Jr. (1941-2023) was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 17, 1941. Raised in Washington, D.C., he spent much of his childhood at Howard University where his mother taught. He started his undergraduate degree at Howard University before transferring to Roosevelt University where he completed his bachelor's degree in 1964.

During the 1960s, he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement attending and participating in sit-ins, peace movements, and more. Bracey attended many protests; most notable was the 1963 Grant Park Protest against Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s position on race relations. Heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago, Bracey was a member of many activist groups and organizations such as Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He additionally was enrolled at both Roosevelt University and Northwestern University for his graduate studies.

Overlapping with his time in graduate school, Bracey worked with Elliott Rudwick and August Meier during this time, publishing collections dedicated to Black nationalism, the Black protest movement, and more. He, along with many of his colleagues, also did a considerable amount of work during this time to microfilm archival and manuscript collections related to Black studies and history for the University Publications of America.

In 1972, at the offer of Michael Thelwell, former classmate at Howard University and SNCC activist, Bracey joined the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as a professor in the Afro-American Studies Department. He was a professor there for over 50 years where his work focused on African American Studies, music, and student movements. While there, he helped create one of the nation’s first doctoral programs in African American studies.

Bracey retired from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2016 and died on February 5, 2023.