Peniel E. Joseph is an American scholar, author, teacher, and public voice on race issues. he holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the history department in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. (Basic Books); Stokely: A Life (Basic Books); Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama (Civitas Books); and Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Holt Paperbacks). Joseph joined UT Austin in 2015 from Tufts University, where he had founded the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). He also founded the second Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) on the University of Texas campus in 2016, and serves as its director.