All Trailblazers
Literature
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Born 1975
Fact
Case for Reparations read over 5 million times in first week
Fact
National Book Award winner at age 40
Fact
Wrote Marvel best-selling Black Panther run
Ta-Nehisi Coates emerged as one of the most influential American writers on race. His 2014 Atlantic essay The Case for Reparations drew a direct line from slavery through Jim Crow to modern inequality, forcing mainstream engagement with a long-dismissed idea.
Between the World and Me (2015), written as a letter to his teenage son, won the National Book Award and became required reading across the country.
He later wrote Marvel Black Panther comic, bringing literary depth to the character with unprecedented cultural specificity.
The struggle is really all I have.— Ta-Nehisi Coates
Key Milestones
A Life in Firsts
1975
Born in Baltimore, Maryland
2008
Joins The Atlantic
2014
The Case for Reparations reshapes national discourse
2015
Between the World and Me wins National Book Award
2016
Receives MacArthur Fellowship; begins writing Black Panther
2023
The Message published
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