Caleb Gayle

“The history Caleb weaves is deeply relevant to the enduring and quintessential question, ‘who is an American?’”—Heather McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us

Caleb Gayle is an associate professor at Northeastern University, a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, and the author of We Refuse to Forget and BLACK MOSES. An award-winning journalist, writer, and historian, he is a leading voice in conversations about the impact of history on race and identity today.

A highly sought-after keynote speaker, Caleb is renowned for drawing insights from his personal history, the immigrant experience, and the deep study of history to explore the modern cultural and political landscape with depth and sincerity. He weaves together history, his reporting, and personal experiences to craft keynote talks to Fortune 500 companies, universities, community groups, labor groups and more, helping them realize the historical importance of the work they do today. In talks with larger companies, he weaves together his past corporate experience and his historical and journalistic work in race and identity to reveal the importance of building inclusive environments in their workplaces.

We Refuse to Forget, Caleb’s first book, is a powerful work of landmark American history that reshapes our understanding of identity, race, and belonging. In it, he tells the story of the Creek Nation, a Native tribe that both owned slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens. By diving into this history, he explores questions of racial and ethnic identity, citizenship, solidarity, belonging, and progress. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls it “a powerful portrait,” while The New Yorker says that the stories Caleb tells are “rich with both the subtleties and the crudenesses of America’s racial history.” Caleb’s second book, BLACK MOSES, chronicles the first migration of Black people from the South to the West to rebuild again and ultimately almost convince President Harrison to designate Oklahoma as an all-Black state.

Caleb also serves as Northeastern’s Associate Director of the Center for Communication, Media Innovation, and Social Change. His writing has earned him recognition from New America, PEN America, and Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Winner of the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, Caleb’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, TIME, The Guardian, Guernica, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe, among many other publications. His nonfiction work has been recognized as part of the Notable Essays Collection of the 2019 Best American Essays. In addition to journalism and academia, Caleb has garnered experience in business as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group and as a Venture Partner at the venture arm of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Caleb completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma and received graduate degrees from the University of Oxford, Harvard Business School, and from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Columbia University’s School of Arts.