Peniel E. Joseph, professor of history at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, received the National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis. The award honors the author of a book that best advances “the understanding of American civil rights movement and its legacy.”
Professor Joseph is being honored for his book Stokely: A Life (Basic Civitas, 2014), a biography of Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Toure. Carmichael was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He spent the later years of his life in Africa.
Professor Joseph has taught at Tufts University since 2009. He is a graduate of Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System, where he double majored in Africana studies and European history. He holds a Ph.D. in American history from Temple University in Philadelphia.
