Ibram X. Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers) was born in Jamaica, Queens (New York) in 1982. He and his family moved to Manassas, Virginia where Kendi attended high school. He attended Florida A&M University, a renowned HBCU, and studied journalism and African-American studies. Initially, he wanted to go into sports journalism, but ultimately he decided he was meant to continue to study race. He then went on to earn a PhD in African-American studies from Temple University.
Kendi’s first book The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965–1972 was about Black movements on college campuses. Inspired by the events of the Black Lives Matter...