Jelani Cobb’s Writing Career and Books

William Jelani Cobb is a writer, professor, and activist who specializes in post–Civil War African American history, civil rights, Black culture, and more. Here is a quick overview of his life and career:

• Early life: Jelani grew up in Queens, New York, and attended high school in Jamaica, Queens. He then moved to Washington, DC, to attend Howard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. His writing career began at Howard, where he published a periodical called One, before contributing to the Washington City Paper and YSB Magazine.
• Academic career: Jelani earned his PhD in US history from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 2003, where he would later teach. He earned fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Jelani also taught at Spelman College and the University of Connecticut, where he worked as an associate professor of history and director of the university’s Institute for African American Studies. He went on to teach at Columbia University as the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism.
• Media and writing career: Jelani has written five books and worked as a staff writer and reporter for The New Yorker since 2015. The same year, he received the Sidney Hillman Foundation’s Prize for Opinion & Analysis for his journalism on civil rights, US politics, and the police. He has contributed to The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, The New Republic, and more. In 2018, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his groundbreaking analysis journalism on Black culture, politics, civil rights, and the conditions of Black life in the United States.

In addition to his journalism career, Jelani has written and edited a number of books about culture, Black life, civil rights, and US history. Here are some of his books, as well as other books he contributed to:

1. 1. In Defense of Mumia, Testimony, Mending the World and Beats, Rhymes and Life (1995): Jelani contributed work to this examination of the death row sentence of journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal after a court convicted him of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
2. 2. The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader (2002): Jelani edited this anthology of influential writings by Harold Cruse, a Black scholar and former professor at the University of Michigan. He tracked the academic down to obtain permission to compile this book after stumbling upon some of Cruse’s work while doing research at New York University.
3. 3. Antidote to Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931–1954 (2004): This book is the published version of Jelani’s dissertation from Rutgers University. He examines the history of the Cold War and the concurrent Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
4. 4. The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays (2007): This collection of essays focuses on different elements of pop culture, as well as Black American entertainers, such as Dave Chapelle, Three 6 Mafia, and Biggie Smalls.
5. 5. To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007): Jelani examines the roots, history, aesthetics, and techniques of the freestyle hip-hop art form. He compares modern commercial emcees to alternative hip-hop artistry, and contextualizes both in relation to historical modes of Black American self-expression.
6. 6. The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (2010): Jelani examines the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, discussing Black voters, the changing political nature of civil rights leadership, and race in the US in light of the election of the country’s first Black president.
7. 7. The Matter of Black Lives: Writing From The New Yorker (2021): Jelani teamed up with fellow New Yorker writer David Remnick to edit this anthology of notable writings about Black life in the United States. The book features words from Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, among others.

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