Algernon Austin

Algernon Austin is the Director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Algernon Austin has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy. 

Austin was the first Director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy where he focused on the labor market condition of America’s workers of color. He has also done work on racial wealth inequality for the Center for Global Policy Solutions and for the Dēmos think tank. At the Thurgood Marshall Institute, the think tank of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., he worked on issues related to race, the economy, and civil rights.  

Austin has a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University, and he taught sociology as a faculty member at Wesleyan University. He has discussed racial inequality on PBS, CNN, NPR, and other national television and radio networks.