Alexis B. Clark

Alexis Clark, author and award-winning journalist, writes about history with a focus on race, culture and politics during World War II and the Civil Rights era. She is an assistant professor at Columbia Journalism School where she teaches reporting, feature writing, a magazine seminar, and a class on covering inequality.

Clark is a contributing writer for History.com with stories on African American culture, the U.S. military, and milestones in social and racial justice. She was recently a correspondent for the public affairs television program, “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien,” where she reported on wealth inequality, environmental injustice and overlooked African American history.

Over the years, she has written a variety of features for The New York Times, from the treatment of Black servicemembers in World War II to sibling separation in New York State’s foster care system. Clark contributed to “Beyond the World War II We Know,” a Times series documenting lesser-known stories from the war, and helped launch “Past Tense,” a special digital series. The project brought narratives of the past to life in stories that featured photographs from the Times archive.

Clark has received grants from the Ford Foundation for her World War II research. Her narrative nonfiction book, Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse and an Unlikely Romance, was published by The New Press, and covered by The New Yorker, the Times, PBS Newshour Weekend, NPR, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Matter of Fact With Soledad O’Brien, Essence, WNYC and Bloomberg TV. “Enemies in Love” is being developed into a television series.

Clark is a former senior editor at Town & Country magazine where she covered cultural and philanthropic events across the country, including President Barack Obama’s inauguration. She is currently under contract with Penguin Random House for a nonfiction book on America’s Black sororities and their fight for gender and racial equality.

A Dallas native, Clark is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and holds an M.A. in government from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in political science from Spelman College.

Notable Work

• "The Black World War II Army Unit Tasked with Burying America's Fallen"
• “When Jim Crow Reigned Amid the Rubble of Nazi Germany.”
• “The Children's Crusade: When the Youth of Birmingham Marched for Justice.”
• “Returning From War, Returning to Racism.”
• “For One Night in 1965, the Supremes Brought the Two Detroits Together”
• “Vernon A.M.E. Church Continues Its Mission 100 Years After the Tulsa Race Massacre.”
• “Separated in Foster Care, Siblings Reunite in Camp