Elizabeth K. Hinton

Professor of History, African American Studies, and Law


Elizabeth Hinton is Professor in the Department of History and the Department of African American Studies at Yale, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Law at the Law School. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty, racial inequality, and urban violence in the 20th century United States.  

FULL BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Hinton

Contact Information



Education & Curriculum Vitae


Ph.D., Columbia University, 2013

M.Phil., Columbia University, 2008

M.A., Columbia University, 2007

B.A., New York University, 2005

Courses Taught


Elizabeth Hinton is Professor in the Department of History and the Department of African American Studies at Yale, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Law at the Law School. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty, racial inequality, and urban violence in the 20th century United States.  

Professor Hinton’s first book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Harvard University Press), examines the implementation of federal law enforcement programs beginning in the mid-1960s that transformed domestic social policies, expanded policing in low-income communities, and facilitated the dramatic expansion of the U.S. prison system. From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime received numerous awards and recognition, including the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Her recent book, America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s (Liveright 2021), won a Robert F. Kennedy book award. America on Fire provides a new framework for understanding the problem of police abuse and the broader, systemic repression of Black people and other people of color in post-civil rights America. From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime and America on Fire were both named New York Times Notable books.  

Professor Hinton’s articles and op-eds can be found in the pages of Science, Nature, The American Historical Review, The Journal of American History, The Journal of Urban History, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Boston Review, The Nation, and Time. With the late historian Manning Marable, she coedited The New Black History: Revisiting the Second Reconstruction (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). Professor Hinton served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. 

Before joining the Yale faculty, Hinton was a professor in the Department of History and the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, where she continues to serve as founding co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. She spent two years as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows and Assistant Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. A Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation Fellow, Hinton completed her Ph.D. in United States History from Columbia University in 2013.  

Wednesday, April 19, 2023


White People Were Kept Out of Prison During COVID. Blacks, Latinos Were Left Behind Bars.

Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton discusses the study she co-authored, which showed that efforts to reduce the number of people in prisons early in the pademic disproportionately benefitted white people.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023


Yale Law Professors, Via Open Letter, Support Work on Pardons and Paroles

Several criminal law experts from Yale Law School wrote to stakeholders about Connecticut’s pause in commutations.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023


Yale Students Present Projects from Inaugural Justice & Society Course

The Justice Collaboratory’s inaugural Yale College course launched last fall and engaged students in the study of community and the role of the criminal legal system in uplifting or impeding community vitality.

Thursday, October 27, 2022


Symposium Explores Incarceration and the Human Mind 

The Incarceration and Imagination symposium brought together scholars, activists, artists, writers, students, and the public to explore the realities of incarceration, its narratives, and the literature and social movements that surround it.

Monday, June 6, 2022


Professor Hinton Elected to American Philosophical Society

Professor of Law Elizabeth K. Hinton was elected to the American Philosophical Society for her accomplishments in social sciences.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021


A Year in Books: Faculty Elevated New Ideas on a Range of Critical Issues

Yale Law School’s renowned faculty published an extraordinary collection of books and scholarship in 2021. Here’s a look back at the year in books published by YLS faculty and lecturers in law.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021


Attica at 50: Repression, Resistance, Resilience

The Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law hosted a panel, “Then and Now: Fifty Years after Attica,” on the legacy of the prison uprising.

Thursday, July 1, 2021


‘America on Fire’: How Police Oppression Fuels Protests by Black Citizens

Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton's latest book, America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s, is reviewed.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021


The History And Cycle Of Police Violence In America

Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton discusses her new book America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s.

Tuesday, June 8, 2021


“America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s”

Professor of Law Elizabeth K. Hinton was interviewed about her book America on Fire.

Friday, May 21, 2021


Will We Ever Get Beyond “The Fire Next Time”? — A Commentary by Elizabeth Hinton

Elizabeth Hinton is a Professor of Law and a member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School, as well as an Associate Professor of History & African American Studies at Yale.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021


Rebellion Through a New Lens

A new book by Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton puts the antiracist marches of 2020 in their historical context.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021


Unearthing the Roots of Black Rebellion

The New York Times interviewed Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton about her new book, America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021


Yale Teach-In Series Reflects on the Path Forward After the Chauvin Verdict

A series of three teach-ins involving Law School faculty, staff, alumni, and affiliates presented an opportunity for the Yale community to reflect and come together in the wake of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021


We were warned about a divided America 50 years ago. We ignored the signs. — A Commentary by Elizabeth Hinton

Elizabeth Hinton is a Professor of Law and a member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School, as well as an Associate Professor of History & African American Studies at Yale.

Tuesday, October 13, 2020


In search of justice: Reimagining race, public safety at a watershed moment

A look at the work and collaboration of Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton and Professor of African American Studies and Psychology at Yale Phillip Atiba Goff. Both are members of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020


New FAS faculty reflects commitment to excellence and diversity

Professors Elizabeth Hinton and Phillip Atiba Goff are mentioned in a story about new faculty at Yale University. Hinton and Goff are both members of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.

Friday, August 14, 2020


Elizabeth Alexander’s Fierce Vision of Social Justice

The Million Book Project, Professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton, and Reginald Dwayne Betts ’16 are mentioned in a Wall Street Journal story about Elizabeth Alexander’s initiatives at the Mellon Foundation.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020


Three Leading Scholars Receive Secondary Appointments at YLS

Leading scholars Gerald Torres, Elizabeth Hinton, and Lauren Benton joined the Yale Law School faculty on July 1, 2020 with secondary appointments as Professors of Law.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020


With Books and New Focus, Mellon Foundation to Foster Social Equity

The New York Times reports on the Million Book Project, funded by a gift from the Mellon Foundation, that will be administered by The Justice Collaboratory with the assistance of Reginald Dwayne Betts ’16, now a YLS Ph.D. candidate, and Elizabeth Hinton, professor of history, African American studies and law.

Friday, June 5, 2020


No Justice, No Peace

Elizabeth Hinton, incoming professor of history, law and African-American studies at Yale and member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School, is interviewed on On the Media on the historical roots of American law enforcement.

Thursday, June 4, 2020


George Floyd’s Death Is a Failure of Generations of Leadership — A Commentary by Elizabeth Hinton

Elizabeth Hinton is an incoming professor of history, law and African-American studies at Yale and member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.

Friday, May 29, 2020


The Minneapolis Uprising in Context — A Commentary by Elizabeth Hinton

Elizabeth Hinton is an incoming professor of history, law and African-American studies at Yale and member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.