Robin D.G. Kelley

Robin D.G. Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at UCLA. His books include Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America; and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. His essays have appeared in The Boston Review, The New York Times, Color Lines, Counterpunch, Re-Thinking Marxism, New Labor Forum, and Souls, to name a few.

BiographyOctober 10, 2022

The Death and Life of My Father, Donald S. Kelley

Reckoning with a legacy of violence, fear, and love.

Robin D.G. Kelley
Higher EducationMay 10, 2021

The UC System’s Policing Expansion Belies Its Stated Commitment to Racial Justice

The license for the rise of the law-and-order campus dates back to President Richard Nixon and The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest.

Robin D.G. Kelley , Paola Bacchetta and David Theo Goldberg
HistoryOctober 15, 2019

Letters From the October 28-November 4, 2019, Issue

Shades of whitewashing…

Our Readers and Robin D.G. Kelley
HistorySeptember 10, 2019

We’re Getting These Murals All Wrong

The Arnautoff murals in San Francisco have been denounced as demeaning and triggering, and defended as an exposé of America’s racist past. Both sides miss the point.

Robin D.G. Kelley
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Social JusticeApril 12, 2019

Why the Highlander Attack Matters

The arson attack on the Highlander Center, a longtime leader in racial and social-justice work, is not merely a hate crime—it’s an act of war.

Robin D.G. Kelley and Makani Themba