Michelle Alexander is an American writer, lawyer, and civil rights advocate, best known for her influential 2010 book, *The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness*. In this work, Alexander argues that the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly the "war on drugs," has created a new racial caste system that systematically marginalizes African Americans in a manner analogous to Jim Crow laws. Her career includes serving as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and as director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California. She has also taught at several universities and, since 2018, has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times. Her book has received numerous awards, including the NAACP Image Award, and has had a profound impact on the public debate surrounding criminal justice reform and racial inequality in the United States.