Mark Whitaker has had a four decade career as a journalist, news executive, and author of narrative history. His next book, due in May 2025, is The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America. Published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the legendary leader’s birth, it’s the first major study of the far-reaching influence Malcolm X has continued to have on American politics and culture-from jazz to hip hop, from sports to movies, and from art to opera-in the sixty years since his assassination in 1965. In compelling new detail, Mark also retraces the long road to exoneration for two men wrongfully convicted of Malcolm’s murder.
Mark’s first book, My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir (2011), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His social histories, Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance (2018), and Saying It Loud: 1966-The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement (2023), were both named among the 50 best non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post.
Mark started his journalism career as a reporter and writer for Newsweek, where he rose to become the first African American editor of a national news magazine. Subsequently, he served as Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News and Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide. Currently, Mark is a a contributing correspondent to CBS Sunday Morning, for which his Juneteenth story about exploring his family roots in Black Texas helped win the 2023 Emmy for Outstanding Recorded News Program. Mark is also a juror for the prestigious Peabody Awards, and previously served as a judge for the Columbia/duPont Awards.
Mark is a proud resident of the Upper West Side of Manhattan and Woodstock, New York, and in his spare time he enjoys cooking, playing golf and listening to jazz.
Career Highlights
Editing
During Mark’s editorship of Newsweek, from 1999 until 2006, the magazine won more awards than in any period of its history, including two National Magazine Awards for General Excellent for coverage of 9/ll and the Iraq War.
Television
For CBS Sunday Morning, Mark has profiled everyone from Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman to filmmaker Ava DuVernay and activist Alicia Garza, and tackled timely issues such as as the rise of the billionaire class and the debate over racial reparations.
Speaking
As a public speaker, in addition to book readings, Mark has given a TEDX talk and spoken to such gatherings as the National Magazine Conference, the Salvation Army and the annual meeting of the Media Law Resources Council
