A collection of The New Yorker's groundbreaking writing on race in America -- including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more -- with a foreword by Jelani Cobb. This anthology from the pages of The New Yorker provides a bold and complex portrait of Black life in America, told through stories of private triumphs and national tragedies, political vision and artistic inspiration. It reaches back across a century, yet it also explores our current moment, from the classroom to the prison cell and the upheavals of what Jelani Cobb calls 'the American Spring.' Bringing together reporting, profiles, memoir, and criticism from writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Elizabeth Alexander, Vinson Cunningham, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Malcolm Gladwell, Jamaica Kincaid, Kelefa Sanneh, Doreen St. Félix, and others, the collection offers startling insights about this country's relationship with race. The Matter of Black Lives reveals the weight of a singular history, and challenges us to envision the future anew.