Shirley Enola Knight was born July 5, 1936 in Goessel, Marion County, Kansas. Her first film appearance came as an extra in the 1955 film Picnic, which was filmed in Kansas. She attended Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.

Knight became known for her parts in the film adaptation of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), and both the stage and screen production of Dutchman, both written by Amiri Baraka.

She married Eugene Presson in 1959, with whom she had one daughter, Kaitlin Hopkins; the marriage ended in a divorce in 1969. She married John R. Hopkins, a screenwriter, in 1969 and had another daughter, Sophie Hopkins. John R. Hopkins died in 1998.

Shirley Knight died on April 22, 2020, in San Marcos, Texas.

[Information collected from The New York Times obituary for Shirley Knight: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/theater/shirley-knight-dead.html]

Amiri Baraka was born October 7, 1934 as Everett Leroi Jones and died January 9th, 2014, both in Newark, New Jersey. He was an African American poet, playwright, political activist, and university professor.

Several of Baraka's works gained critical attention in the 1960s, including "Dutchman" (1964); "The Slave" (1964); and "J-E-L-L-O" (1970). "Dutchman," set on a New York City subway train, follows Lula, a young white woman, and Clay, a young middle-class African American man. Exploring racial tensions, racism, and social taboos, "Dutchman" became one of Baraka's most widely known works.

"Dutchman" won an Obie Award as the best American play of 1964. The play was adapted by Baraka into a screenplay and the film directed by Anthony Harvey was released in 1967. The film starred Shirley Knight and Al Freeman, Jr.

[Information taken from collection materials and The New York Times obituary for Amiri Baraka: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/arts/amiri-baraka-polarizing-poet-and-playwright-dies-at-79.html]