About the Author

Jelani Cobb is the current Dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker, author of several books includingThe Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and theParadox of Progress and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He is the editor/co-editor on multiple volumes includingThe Matter of Black Lives and The Essential Kerner Commission Report. Dr. Cobb is the producer/co-producer on documentaries includingTHE RIOT REPORT. He received the Peabody Award in 2020 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize inCommentary. Dr. Cobb currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American JournalismProject and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library.