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Keith Boykin

Keith Boykin is an American TV and film producer, national political commentator, author, and former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. He has made much of this public in his 2022 memoir, Quitting: Why I Left My Job to Live a Life of Freedom.

Early life
Boykin was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and later attended Countryside High School in Clearwater, Florida. Despite the move, Keith became the president of his school's student government as well as an editor of the school newspaper. Later, he began his studies at Harvard Law School in 1989. While a member of that group, he joined ten other students in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the law school. ==Career ==
Career
After graduating from Harvard in 1992, Boykin began working at a San Francisco law firm where he had previously interned. However, he left that position in order to work for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign as the Midwest Press Director. That meeting included 8 members drawn from three LGBTQ organizations: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership forum, and the March on Washington Committee. From 1999 to 2001, Boykin taught Political Science as an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, D.C. In 2004, Keith Boykin and his partner at the time, Nathan Hale Williams, made television history as the first openly black gay couple to appear on a reality television show, when they appeared on the Showtime reality TV series "American Candidate." In 2005, Minister Louis Farrakhan invited Keith to speak during the tenth anniversary commemoration of the Million Man March. At the last minute, however, the invitation was rescinded without a clear explanation. One of the leaders of the March, the Reverend Willie F. Wilson, objected to Boykin's presence. In February 2006, Boykin became co-host of the TV series "My Two Cents" on the BET J channel. From 2008 to 2016, Boykin served as a contributor for CNBC. He has also been featured or quoted in articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, VIBE, and Jet. Some of the publications he has written for include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Petersburg Times, The Advocate, Black Issues Book Review, and The Crisis. His syndicated column appeared in several newspapers across the country, including The New York Blade, the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, and the Houston Voice. ==Personal life==
Personal life
Boykin's great-great-grandfather, Rev. John H. Dickerson an A.M.E. Pastor, served as the grand master of the Prince Hall Affiliated Masons of Florida from 1899 until 1916. He led the erecting of the Masonic Temple on 410 Broad Street. He was also the chairman of the 1912 Florida State Republican Convention. Boykin's great-grandfather, Horatio Dickerson, served in an all-black military infantry known as the Harlem Hellfighters (The 369th Infantry Regiment, originally formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment ) from 1917 until 1919. Boykin's grandfather, John H. Dickerson Sr., served as principal of Campbell Street Elementary School in Daytona Beach, Florida. In 1996, Boykin revealed his sexual orientation in the book One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America. In 2006, Boykin won a gold medal in wrestling at the 2006 Gay Games. Boykin met his biological father, John Dickerson, a chemist for Miami-Dade Pollution Center, in 2015. After the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in December 2016, Boykin attended Castro's funeral procession in Santiago de Cuba with his Cuban partner and watched the remains of the leader pass through the Plaza de Marte. In 2022, Boykin moved to Los Angeles but he also maintained his residence in New York City. He has two godsons whom he considers his 'sons'. ==Published works==
Published works
One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America, Anchor Publisher, 1996, • "Respecting the Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbians and Gays", Avon Books, April 1, 1999, • "Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America", Carroll & Graf, December 13, 2004, • "For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough", Magnus Books, August 28, 2012, • "Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America", Bold Type Books, September 14, 2021, • "Quitting: Why I Left My Job to Live a Life of Freedom," Scribd Originals, October 12, 2022, • "Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?", Bold Type Books, January 23, 2024, ==See also==
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