How did We Get Here?: The Past and Present of Electoral Politics and Voter Suppression

Date: Wednesday, November 18

Time: 8 PM

Place: Click here to watch a recording of the event.

Questions can no longer be submitted.

Speaker:

Jelani Cobb is an American author and educator, originally from Queens, New York. Cobb was educated at Jamaica High School and Howard University, before going on to Rutgers University where he received a PhD in American history in 2003. During his time at Howard, Cobb began his professional writing career; he published his work at a periodical called One. He also began contributing to the Washington City Paper. Starting in 1993, Cobb’s first national outlet was YSB Magazine, which was a part of the Black Entertainment Television, Inc. With the intention of connecting more with African tradition, Cobb decided to add "Jelani,” which means “powerful” in Swahili, to his name.

Cobb started as a contributing writer for the New Yorker in 2012 before becoming a staff writer in 2015. His work is primarily centered around race, politics, history, and culture. Recent articles from Cobb featured in the New Yorker include “Biden’s Moral Imperative to Safeguard Civil Rights”; “Our Long, Forgotten History of Election-Related Violence”; and “How the Coronavirus Pandemic Intensifies the Fight Over Voting Rights,” emphasizing voting rights issues, the 2020 presidential current election as well as other racial issues plaguing the United State. Cobb points out the racial injustices that are being magnified and brought to the surface after the election of President Donald Trump in the election back in 2016.

In his book, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, originally published in 2010, Jelani Cobb examines the 2008 election and aims to understand and explain the factors which led to Barack Obama’s presidency. He emphasizes the importance of the black vote in the election.

Cobb served as the Associate Professor of History and Director of the Africana studies Institute at the University of Connecticut from 2012-2016. He specifically focused on post-Civil War African American History, twentieth century American politics, and the history of the Cold War. In 2016, Cobb was featured in the Netflix documentary the 13th, which examined the brutality of the American prison system as well as the relationship between race and mass incarceration in the United States. He was also recently a correspondent in an episode of the PBS television program Frontline titled “Whose Vote Counts.” In 2015, he was awarded with the “Sidney Hillman Award for Opinion and Analysis” by the Sidney Hillman foundation. Cobb is currently a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Written by Srijani Shreya, Class of 2021, and AJ Walker, Class of 2022