Kenneth W. Mack (born December 14, 1964) is a historian and the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2000. He is the author o
Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012)
and co-editor o
The New Black: What Has Changed--and What Has Not--With Race in America (2012)

Education and early career

Kenneth W. Mack grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, attended Harrisburg High School and graduated from

Central Dauphin East High School Central Dauphin East High School is a large, suburban, public high school located in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It is one of two high schools operated by the Central Dauphin School District. In the 2017–2018 school year, enrollmen ...

in 1982. He enrolled at Drexel University, where he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1987, and was inducted into the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. He then worked as an electrical engineer for

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, where he did Integrated circuit design. He left

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

to enroll at Harvard Law School, where he earned a J.D., cum laude, in 1991. He served as Executive Editor (Bluebook) of the Harvard Law Review, when his classmate,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, served as its president. Mack clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, in the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

. After clerking, he worked in the Washington, D.C. office of

Covington & Burling Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as ...

. In 1994, Mack left the practice of law to enter graduate school at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, where he received a master's degree in 1996, and a Ph.D. in 2005, both in history.

Academic career

In 1999, Mack received an appointment as the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School. The following year he joined the Harvard law faculty as a professor. Mack's teaching and scholarship have focused on the legal and constitutional history of American race relations and economic life. He has written and lectured widely in these areas. His work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal,

Journal of American History ''The Journal of American History'' is the official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the official j ...

Law and History Review ''Law and History Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering legal history. It was established in 1983 and is published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society for Legal History, of which it is the off ...

, and other scholarly outlets. He has also written opinion pieces for

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

, the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

The Root "The Root" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo. It is the eighth track on his second studio album, ''Voodoo'', which was released on January 25, 2000, by Virgin Records. "The Root" was recorded and produced by D'Angelo at New York's ...

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

, Baltimore Sun, and other popular media. He has appeared on the

PBS NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the pro ...

and has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

PBS Frontline ''Frontline'' (stylized as FRONTLINE) is an investigative documentary program distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Episodes are produced at WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts. The series has covered a variety ...

Anderson Cooper 360 Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson R ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, and

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

. In 2007, he was awarded the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship by the

Fletcher Foundation The Fletcher Foundation was a nonprofit foundation that supported civil rights, education, and environmental education. The foundation supported efforts to develop a more just society with more equal opportunities for more of the population prima ...

. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service by

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Harrisburg University of Science & Technology, commonly referred to as Harrisburg University (HU), is a private STEM-focused university in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with an additional location in Philadelphia. Founded in 2001 as Harrisburg Polyte ...

Books

Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012)The New Black: What Has Changed -- and What Has Not -- with Race in America (2012)

References

External links

Personal Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Kenneth W. 1964 births Living people African-American people Harvard Law School faculty Harvard Law School alumni Writers from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Princeton University alumni Historians of the United States People associated with Covington & Burling