Kareem Crayton, Executive Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, is a respected scholar and expert whose work centers on the intersection of law, politics, and race. He is the only academic in the United States with formal training in law and political science whose primary work explores the relationship between race and politics in representative institutions. The insights and analyses from his research have distinguished him as a leading voice in academia and a key player in public policy debates.

A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Kareem is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (Government) and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science as well as a law degree from Stanford University. He is a recipient of a National Foundation Graduate Fellowship in support of his graduate studies.  He also served as a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the Constitutional Court for the Republic of South Africa for former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo.

Kareem’s academic work addresses the varied effects of state-sanctioned racial exclusion and discrimination on campaigns, elections, and governance in the political system.