He has also illustrated greetings cards and magazines, and has been commissioned for murals, including three for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[2] Although Ransome was born in North Carolina, the family moved to Bergenfield, New Jersey while he was in high school.

He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where his mentor was the illustrator Jerry Pinkney.

[5] Additionally, 13 of the books Ransome has illustrated are Junior Library Guild books: Bimmi Finds a Cat (1997);[6] The Christmas Tugboat (2012);[7] Light in the Darkness (2013);[8] Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio (2014);[9] My Story, My Dance (2016);[10] Before She Was Harriet (2018);[11] Game Changers (2018); [12] The Creation (2019); [13] Gridiron (2020); [14] Overground Railroad (2020); [15] Hardcourt (2022); [16] Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge (2022); [17] and The Story of the Saxophone (2023).

[18] Before She Was Harriet was named one of the best books of 2017 by Booklist,[19] the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature,[20] the Chicago Public Library,[21] and Kirkus Reviews.