Race in the decade since Obama

Barnes is Professor of Practice in Public Affairs and Co-director of the University of Virginia's Democracy Initiative. From January 2009 until January 2012, she was assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Obama White House. Until July 2008, Barnes was the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, and she has also worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gaines is the Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice, with a joint appointment in the Corcoran Department of History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. He is author of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture During the Twentieth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 1996), which was awarded the American Studies Association’s John Hope Franklin Book Prize. 

Charlton is the editor of Race/Related, the New York Times' editorial group covering racial issues. She came to the Times from the New Yorker, where she spearheaded digital initiatives such as "The Current," "The New Yorker Recommends," and the "Listening Booth.” Previously, at New York magazine, she wrote a regular music column, and at the Public Theater, she organized an event for visual artists to collaborate with musicians during live performances at Joe’s Pub.