Jason Sokol is a historian of the civil rights movement. He is the author of three books: There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights (Alfred A. Knopf), which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 in the Washington Post Book World; All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn (Basic Books, 2014); and The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Basic Books, 2018).
Sokol was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts (the birthplace of basketball). He graduated from Oberlin College, and received his doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley.He is the recipient of post-doctoral fellowships from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University. He was also awarded a Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He has published articles in a variety of scholarly journals as well as popular publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, and The Root.
