Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore -- not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-'90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

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Issue March 2013

The Emancipation of Barack Obama

Why the reelection of the first black president matters even more than his election

Issue September 2012

Fear of a Black President

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration.

Issue The Civil War

Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?

Issue June 2011

Fade to White

A filmmaker maps Austin’s shifting ethnic landscape.

Issue May 2011

The Legacy of Malcolm X

Why his vision lives on in Barack Obama

Issue April 2011

The Other Detroit

The city’s grandest enclave clings to the dream.

Issue July/August 2010

The Littlest Schoolhouse

Brainy but easily distracted, the author barely made it through high school and dropped out of college. Would a program like New York’s new School of One, which uses technology to tailor learning to each student’s style and pace, have made all the difference?

Issue January/February 2010

WalMart and the Civil War

Saving hallowed ground from a Big Box invader

Issue January/February 2009

American Girl

When Michelle Obama told a Milwaukee campaign rally last February, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country," critics derided her as another Angry Black Woman. But the only truly radical proposition put forth by Obama, born and raised in Chicago's storied South Side, is the idea of a black community fully vested in the country at large, and proud of the American dream.

Issue May 2008

‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’

The audacity of Bill Cosby’s black conservatism

The Biggest Story in Photos

2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

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Ta-Nehisi Coates
from the Magazine

The Emancipation of Barack Obama

Fear of a Black President

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s…

Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?