Lerone Bennett Jr. (October 17, 1928 – February 14, 2018) was an African-American scholar, journalist, and social historian who analyzed race relations in the United States.

He served in the Korean War and began a career in journalism at the Atlanta Daily World before being recruited by Johnson Publishing Company to work for JET magazine.

At twelve he began writing for The Mississippi Enterprise, a local, Black-owned paper, where he was introduced to the power of media in shaping public opinion on racial issues.

Bennett's article challenged conventional beliefs about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, bringing attention to African-American oral histories that had been largely overlooked.

These include his first work, Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, 1619–1962 (1962), which discusses the contributions of African Americans in the United States from its earliest years.

This last work was described by one reviewer as a "flawed mirror", and it was criticized by historians of the Civil War period, such as James McPherson and Eric Foner.

[citation needed] A longtime resident of Kenwood, Chicago, Bennett died of natural causes at his home there on 14 February 2018, aged 89.