BIOGRAPHY
Brent Staples (b. 1951). As an editorial writer for the New York Times, Staples is an influential commentator on American politics and culture. A proponent of individual effort, Staples resists being reduced to a symbol of African American progress, remembering his childhood as economically stable until marred by his father's alcoholism.

After a chaotic family life during his high school years, he had such little hope of attending college that he did not take the SAT; however, a special program at Philadelphia Military College and Penn Morton College provided needed skills. He earned a B.A. with honors from Widener University (1973) and received a Danforth Fellowship for graduate study at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in psychology (1977).