As a bestselling author, 2015 MacArthur fellow, and national correspondent for The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates has emerged as one of the foremost thinkers about race and racial issues in America. His book, Between the World and Me, winner of the 2015 National Book Award,  has brought a personal and powerful voice to bear on the centuries-old legacy of violence inflicted upon African Americans.

Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Harvard University, will moderate the event with remarks by Kathryn Edin, Distinguished Bloomberg Professor, Johns Hopkins University, and William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University.

The event is co-sponsored by the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, HKS Black Student Union, Harvard Black Men’s Forum, and the HKS Office for Student Diversity and Inclusion.