Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander at Miller Center, 2011
Born	(1967-10-07) October 7, 1967 (age 49) United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Race in the United States criminal justice system, Racial profiling, Racism in the United States
Institutions	Ohio State University
Alma mater	Vanderbilt University Stanford Law School
Known for	The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander (born October 7, 1967) is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, a civil rights advocate, and writer. She is best known for her 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Michelle Alexander was born on October 7, 1967. She is the daughter of Sandra Alexander, formerly of Ashland, Oregon, and the late John Alexander, originally from Evanston, Illinois. Her mother was the senior vice president of the ComNet Marketing Group in Medford, Oregon, which solicits donations for nonprofit organizations. Her younger sister, Leslie Alexander, is a professor of African American Studies at Ohio State University and is the author of African or American?: Black Identity and Political Activism in New York City, 1784-1861.

Alexander graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she received a Truman Scholarship. She received a law degree from the Stanford Law School.

Alexander served for several years as director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California, which spearheaded a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement. Alexander directed the Civil Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School and was a law clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun at the U. S. Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. As an associate at Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, she specialized in plaintiff-side class action suits alleging race and gender discrimination.