The Watkins Community Museum of History announced the first program in its 2008 Local History Makers Series.

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 the museum, 1047 Mass.

Tidwell will discuss Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks and Frank Marshall Davis.

The program is sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council.