Kendi was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens,[3][1][8] as Ibram Henry Rogers, to middle-class parents, Carol Rogers, a former business analyst for a health-care organization,[3] and Larry Rogers, a tax accountant and then hospital chaplain. Both of his parents are now retired and work as Methodist ministers.[3][9] He has an older brother, Akil.[3]
From third to eighth grade, Kendi attended private Christian schools in Queens.[10] In 1997, then age 15, Kendi moved with his family to Manassas, Virginia, after having attended John Bowne High School as a freshman. He attended Stonewall Jackson High School for his final three years of high school and graduated in 2000.[11][9][10]
In 2005, Kendi received dual B.S. degrees in African American Studies and magazine production from Florida A&M University.[12] At Florida A&M he wrote a weekly column for the student newspaper The Famuan and also interned with the Tallahassee Democrat. His Famuan column was discontinued at the request of the Democrat after he wrote an article claiming European people had invented HIV/AIDS to fight off the "extinction" of their race.[13] Kendi continued his studies at Temple University where he was advised by Ama Mazama, earning an M.A. in 2007 and a Ph.D. in 2010, both in African American Studies.[12] Kendi's dissertation was titled "The Black Campus Movement: An Afrocentric Narrative History of the Struggle to Diversify Higher Education, 1965-1972."[14]
