Robert Coles and the Children of Crisis

Harvard professor Robert Coles, Pulitzer winner and psychiatrist who died at 97, spent his life giving voice to America’s most vulnerable children—documenting their courage amid poverty and segregation in his landmark “Children of Crisis” series. Starting as an Air Force doctor in the South, he built trust by sitting on the floor, listening deeply, and refusing to ask formal questions. Though some called his work journalistic, not scientific, his empathetic storytelling earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a MacArthur “genius grant,” and a spot among the century’s greatest nonfiction. Author of 50+ books, he explored children’s moral and spiritual worlds globally, even writing about Anna Freud and Dorothy Day. Coles often wrestled with the guilt of his privilege, but his legacy is clear: how we treat children reveals our soul—and our future.

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