James A. Banks is the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and was the Founding Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle (which was renamed the Banks Center for Educational Justice in 2018). He is a specialist in social studies education and multicultural education.

James Albert Banks was born on September 24, 1941 near Marianna, Arkansas to Matthew Banks and Lula Holt Banks. Banks obtained his associate’s degree from Chicago City College in 1963. In 1964, he received his bachelor’s degree in elementary education and social science with honors from Chicago Teachers College (now Chicago State University) and then went on to receive an M.A. (1967) and Ph.D (1969) in social science and education from Michigan State University.

Banks married Cherry A. McGee, a fellow student at Michigan State University, in 1969. She is also a professor of education emeritus and the two have written several books and articles together. They have two daughters, Angela M. Banks and Patricia A. Banks, who are also college professors.

Banks joined the faculty of the University of Washington’s College of Education in 1969, becoming the College’s first Black professor and the first Black professor to gain tenure at the UW through the promotion process. Banks served as assistant professor until 1971, associate professor 1971-1973, and became a full professor in 1973. In 1992, Banks founded the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington and served as its director until his retirement. Banks was named Russell F. Stark University Professor in 2000 and then Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies in 2006. Professor Banks was also president of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) in 1982 and president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 1997-1998.

Banks has authored or edited more than twenty books, as well as over sixty book chapters and about 100 journal articles. Banks is editor of two landmark publications, Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (1995, second edition 2004) and Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives (2004). The Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, which was the first in the field to be published, received the Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education in 1997. He also edits a multicultural education book series published by Teachers College Press at Columbia University. This Series began in 1996 and consisted of more than 60 published books in 2019.

In 1986, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational R & D named Professor Banks a Distinguished Scholar/Researcher on Minority Education. He received that Committee's Distinguished Career Award in 1996. In 1994, he was the recipient of the AERA Research Review Award. In 1998, he received the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) 1998 Presidents’ Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2000. In 2001, he received the National Council for the Social Studies Distinguished Career Research in Social Studies Award. Banks was the twenty-ninth annual faculty lecturer at the University of Washington in 2004–05, the university’s highest honor for a faculty member. In 2004, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) awarded its first Social Justice in Education Award to Banks for a career of research that advances social justice through education research.

Banks retired from the University of Washington in January, 2019.