Cover of Backtalker: An American Memoir

Backtalker: An American Memoir

by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

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Fresh Air, NPR · May 5, 2026

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s path from ‘Backtalker’ to legal scholar

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A memoir tracing Crenshaw's journey from her childhood in Canton, Ohio through Cornell, Harvard Law, and the University of Wisconsin, where she developed the foundational concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory that would reshape American politics and legal scholarship.

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