Mark Whitaker is an author, journalist, and editor. His memoir My Long Trip Home was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His social histories Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance and Saying it Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement were both named among the best nonfiction books of the year by the Washington Post. He is the former editor of Newsweek and the first African American to lead a national newsweekly. He then served as Washington bureau chief for NBC News and managing editor of CNN Worldwide.
