Born and raised just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Gwendolyn Patton moved to the city of Montgomery at the age of sixteen, immediately becoming a leader in the Montgomery Improvement Association. Patton's activism would continue throughout her young life, continuing in her roles as a founding member of the Black Alabama Democratic Conference and as a youth organizer in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Dr. Patton earned her bachelor's in English and history at Tuskegee; her master's in history at Antioch College; and her doctorate in political history and higher education administration at Union Graduate School. After decades of leadership in higher education around the country, Patton returned to Montgomery in 1977, where she served as the city's coordinator for the National Historic Voting Rights Trail and on its National Advisory Council. Patton passed away in 2017 at the age of seventy-three.