William Jelani Cobb, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of History at Spelman College, as well as a critic, essayist and fiction writer whose writings on politics, the African Diaspora and contemporary African American culture have appeared in a number of national outlets.

His column "Past Imperfect" appears regularly on AOL BlackVoices. He is editor of The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, which was a Notable Book of the Year by Black Issues Book Review. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Essence, Emerge, the Progressive, the Washington City Paper, One Magazine, and Alternet.org.