Isabel Wilkerson (born 1961) is an American journalist and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020).

Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people for The Warmth of Other Suns (2010), which documents the stories of African Americans who migrated to northern and western cities during the 20th century.

[4] Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the book Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 – 2003, edited by David Garlock.

[3][5] After fifteen years of research and writing, she published in 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration,[6] which examines the three geographic routes that were commonly used by African Americans leaving the southern states between 1915 and the 1970s, illustrated through the personal stories of people who took those routes.

During her research for the book, Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people who made the migration from the South to Northern and Western cities.

In a 2010 New York Times interview, Wilkerson described herself as being part of a movement of African Americans who have chosen to return to the South after generations in the North.

[19] On October 14, 2020, Netflix announced Ava DuVernay would write, direct, and produce a feature film adaptation of Caste.