No Ordinary American Girl: A Peek into the Creation of Civil Rights Girl, Melody Ellison

Mark Speltz is a Senior Historian with Wells Fargo’s Family and Business History Center in San Francisco, California. He worked as a historian at Pleasant Company/American Girl from 2000–2017 and is the author of North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016).

The author would like to express his deep gratitude to the journal editors, Sarah Case and James Brooks, and special issue guest editor, Lisa Jacobson, for their interest in this piece and support along the way.