Reed was born to Robert and Josephine Reed in Chicago, Illinois on January 11, 1942. He grew up in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood, where he attended John Marshall Elementary School and graduated from John Marshall High School in 1959.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy.from Kent State University in 1982, with a thesis "A study of Black politics and protest in depression-decade Chicago: 1930-1939".
Reed was a professor of Black Studies from 1982-2009 and published a number of books related to his work in the field Reed served as Professor of Black Studies at the University of Chicago from 1982 to 1987. He then accepted a position at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he taught courses on North American slavery and African American history in Chicago.
Over the course of his career, Reed published a number of books on African American history.
