08 Feb 2021

Ibram X. Kendi

Black Authors post, Day 8.

Black Authors post, Day 8.

Today’s author is author, professor, and anti-racist activist Ibram X Kendi.

Ibram Xolani Kendi was born Ibram Henry Rogers, in 1982. He was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens borough of New York City. Kendi’s parents were Carol and Larry Rogers. Kendi’s parents came of age during the Black Power movement, which strongly influenced Kendi’s education and views on race.

In high school, Kendi’s family moved from New York City to Mannassas, Virginia. After graduating high school, Kendi attended Florida A&M University, where he earned dual B.S. degrees in African American Studies and Magazine Production in 2005. He went on to earn a M.A., and then a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University. Kendi’s dissertation eventually became his first published book, titled The Black Campus Movement: An Afrocentric Narrative History of the Struggle to Diversify Higher Education, 1965-1972.

Kendi changed his name upon his marriage to Sadiqa Kendi. They changed their last name together to Kendi, which means “the loved one” in the language of the Meru people of Kenya. Kendi also took the middle name Xolani, which means “peace” in both Zulu and Xhosa.

Kendi started his professorial career as an assistant professor at State University of New York at Oneonta. He went on to teach at University at Albany (SUNY), Brown University, University of Florida, and American University in Washington, D.C. In 2017, Kendi founded and became the executive director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. In 2020, Kendi became a professor at Boston University, and he moved the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University to Boston University.

Kendi has had a prolific writing career, writing news pieces, essays in books, and essays in academic journals. In 2016, he won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning. His 2019 book, How to be Antiracist, was a New York Times Bestseller. He was the youngest author to ever win the prize. In 2019, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2020, he was named on Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People.

Kendi lives in Boston, MA.

Links to some of my favorite books by Kendi:

A note: These Amazon links point to Amazon Smile, Amazon’s affiliate charity program. If you have not set up Amazon Smile, I encourage you to point it to an organization like Marnita’s Table, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “create spaces for the unheard to find voice and foster connections across systems to better respond to inequities across healthcare, education, and social justice by providing the tools and environment for people to connect and collaborate more effectively across difference”.

Some links: