Melissa Harris-Perry

Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry (born October 2, 1973; formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell) is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry hosts the Melissa Harris-Perry weekend news and opinion television show on MSNBC. She is also a regular fill-in host on The Rachel Maddow Show as well as a professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, where she is the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. Prior to this, she taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. She is also a regular columnist for the magazine The Nation, and the author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.

Early life

Harris-Perry was born to a white mother and black father.^[1] She was born in Seattle but grew up in Chesterfield County, Virginia, one of the counties adjoining the independent city of Richmond, Virginia attending Thomas Dale High School. Her father was the first dean of African-American Affairs at the University of Virginia.^[2] Her mother, Diana Gray, taught at a community college and was working on her doctorate when they met. She went on to work for nonprofit organizations that provided services such as day-care centers, health care for people in rural communities and access to reproductive care for poor women.^[3]

Harris-Perry graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor's degree in English and received a PhD in political science from Duke University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.^[4][5]

Career

Harris-Perry's academic career began in the fall of 1999, where she rose from Assistant to Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. After 7 years, and being lured by famed philosopher Dr. Cornel West, Perry left University of Chicago for Princeton University in 2006. She was offered a tenured joint appointment as an Associate Professor of Political Science and African-American Studies. Harris-Perry would remain in this position until she left in 2011,^[6] after being denied a full professorship because of “questions about her work and an assessment of where she is” in her career, according to the Center's director at the time, Eddie S. Glaude Jr.^[7] MSNBC announced on January 5, 2012 that Harris-Perry would host her own weekend show, which began airing on February 18, 2012.^[8]

Harris-Perry has been both lauded and criticized by numerous political commentators for statements she has made on her program—including those related to collective parenting, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and abortion.^[9][10][11] She tearfully apologized for a "photos of the year" segment on December 28, 2013 that made several jokes about a family picture featuring former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's family, including his adopted black grandson.^[12][13][14]

On July 1, 2014, Harris-Perry returned to her alma mater, Wake Forest University, as Presidential Chair Professor of Politics and International Affairs.^[15] She is the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project.^[16][17]

In April 2015, the Winston-Salem Journal reported that the IRS had placed a tax lien on Harris-Perry and her husband for about $70,000 in delinquent taxes. Harris-Perry said she and her husband paid $21,721 on April 15, 2015 and have a payment plan with the IRS.^[18]

Bibliography

• Harris-Lacewell, Melissa Victoria (2004). Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought (First ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-11405-7. 
• Harris-Perry, Melissa V. (2011). Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16541-8. 

References

External links

• Melissa Harris-Perry – Official website
• Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC
• Column archive at The Nation