Cornel West American Actor Born 1953 in Tulsa

Early life

Cornel West was born on 2 June 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, California, where he attended John F. Kennedy High School. His mother was a teacher and school principal, his father worked as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, and his grandfather was pastor of a Baptist church in Tulsa. As a teenager he took part in civil rights demonstrations and organized a push for Black studies courses at his school, where he was student body president.

West entered Harvard in 1970 and graduated in 1973 with honors in Near Eastern languages and civilization. He completed a master's degree at Princeton University in 1975 and a doctorate in philosophy there in 1980, becoming the first African American to earn a philosophy doctorate at Princeton. His dissertation, on ethics, historicism and the Marxist tradition, was later published as The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.

Career

West began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York and moved to Yale Divinity School in 1984. He returned to Union Theological Seminary for a year, then became a professor of religion and director of the African American Studies program at Princeton from 1988 to 1994. He then joined Harvard as professor of African American studies and divinity, and in 1998 was named the university's first Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. He left Harvard in 2002 for Princeton, where he helped found the Center for African American Studies in 2006. In 2012 he went back to Union Theological Seminary, and in 2016 he returned to Harvard as Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy. After a dispute over tenure he resigned from Harvard in June 2021 and rejoined Union Theological Seminary, holding the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair.

His books include Race Matters (1993), Democracy Matters (2004), The Rich and the Rest of Us (2012, with Tavis Smiley), Black Prophetic Fire (2014) and The Radical King (2016). He has written or contributed to more than twenty books. He has also recorded spoken-word and hip-hop albums, starting with Sketches of My Culture in 2001, followed by Street Knowledge in 2004 and Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations in 2007.

On screen, West played Councillor West in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, and recorded commentary for the Matrix films. He appeared in the documentaries Black Is... Black Ain't, Examined Life (2008) and Still Bill, and made a guest appearance on 30 Rock in 2012. He co-hosts the podcast The Tight Rope with Tricia Rose and has often appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Recognition

West won an American Book Award in 1993 and the James Madison Medal in 1996. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1997 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. Other honors include an honorary doctorate from Paris 8 University in 2004, the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize in 2005, an honorary degree from Spelman College in 2009 and the Four Freedoms Award for freedom of worship. The World Cultural Council gave him special recognition in 2008, and he has received more than twenty honorary degrees in all.

Public roles

West has described himself as a non-Marxist socialist and has served as honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. He is a co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives and sits on the advisory board of International Bridges to Justice. He advised Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign and Al Sharpton's 2004 campaign, and has taken part in protests, including in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. He has also supported Bernie Sanders's presidential bids.

On 5 June 2023 West announced a run for president in the 2024 election, first with the People's Party, then seeking the Green Party nomination, and from October 2023 as an independent. In February 2024 he announced the Justice For All Party. His campaign centered on Medicare for All, public housing, climate action and a smaller military budget. A decision to keep him and his running mate, Melina Abdullah, off the Michigan ballot in August 2024 was overturned by a state judge a week later.