2011 The Root 100

Michelle Alexander is an activist, litigator and associate professor at Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness.

  • Influence: 66.4
  • Reach:7.8
  • Substance: 8.5
  • Media: 139
  • Twitter: 0
  • Internet: 469000


How were they ranked/scored?
  • Michelle Alexander #56

  • Law professor and author who is lone voice criticizing the war on drugs and the mass incarceration of people of color for the mainstream audience.
  • Job: Professor of Moritz College of Law and author
  • Sector: Community
  • Location: Columbus, Ohio
  • Age: 44
  • Bio:

    Michelle Alexander, a litigator-turned-legal scholar, is dedicated to rooting out racial bias in the criminal-justice system. Mass incarceration and the war on drugs, the former Soros Justice fellow says, is "the new Jim Crow." "There are more African Americans under correctional control today -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850," she writes. She's a bold voice and a public intellectual breaking down the realities facing younger generations.

    Watch her on video.