The top Editor of The Atlantic has revealed that Ta-Nehisi Coates, among the most influential intellectuals and writers in the United States, is leaving his position as a national correspondent for The Atlantic after a decade with the magazine. Coates, 42, gained a wide readership during his time at The Atlantic, where he published sweeping, painstakingly reported essays about systemic racism and white supremacy in the United States.

In a memo to the staff, Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s editor in chief, called the departure “bittersweet news. According to Coates, the last few years for him have been years of significant changes and would like to take some time to reflect on these changes, and to figure out the best path forward, both as a person and as a writer. Goldberg explained his mentioning ‘the sweet part’ as for starters Ta-Nehisi’s extraordinary record of achievement at The Atlantic.

Coates, who was hired at The Atlantic in 2008, has written about a range of issues including politics, poverty, the Confederate battle flag, health care and his own name. He has written about the black people who were killed by their neighbors, the police or perfect strangers during those years — including Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Renisha McBride — and about an old friend of his, Prince Jones, who was killed by the police in 2000. But his best-known pieces for the magazine are his long, deeply reported essays about racial injustice — especially “The Case for Reparations,” which dissects the history of racist oppression and argues for a proper redress:

To ignore the fact that one of the oldest republics in the world was erected on a foundation of white supremacy, to pretend that the problems of a dual society are the same as the problems of unregulated capitalism, is to cover the sin of national plunder with the sin of national lying. The lie ignores the fact that reducing American poverty and ending white supremacy are not the same.

Responding to his resignation Coates mentioned that his public prominence was a factor in his decision to step down.