J. Edgar Tidwell, associate professor of English at Kansas University, will present a free program titled “Against the Odds: Writers Growing up Black in Kansas,” at 3 p.m. Saturday at Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Mass.

The event is part of the Local History Makers Series, which celebrates Douglas County and Kansas citizens who have made a significant impact in the area.

Tidwell will discuss Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks and Frank Marshall Davis, who were all born in Kansas, a land full of uncertainty and contradictions for blacks. Each developed here his remarkable literary talents and learned how to succeed against the odds. The program is sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council.

Tidwell directed “Reading and Remembering Langston Hughes,” a series of poetry circles that met in five sites around Kansas in 2001-02 to discuss selected works by Hughes.