Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, John Riley witnessed the struggles endured by leaders and participants of the civil rights movement, struggles that informed both his teaching and his charitable activities. Currently, he is working as executive producer on a documentary about James Meredith and his “March Against Fear,” a 1966 demonstration that became the largest civil rights event ever held in the state of Mississippi. In 2018, John funded several cultural arts nonprofits and the National Civil Rights Museum’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and played a pivotal role in supporting the expansion of the museum’s digital archives. He has served as an editor and creative consultant on “The Picturetaker,” a documentary film about civil rights–era photojournalist Ernest Withers, and on books about Withers, bluesman Robert Johnson, and Hi Records recording artist Howard Grimes. John has spent decades as a Great Books leader and college teacher, exploring how we confront unjust power, designing and conducting a retrospective course on African American Literature and a class on “Voices of Resistance,” while teaching at Benedictine University. His humanities classes at Benedictine and Morton College and his seminars for Classical Pursuits frequently included selections by Faulkner, Wells, Wright, and King.