Synopsis
John Blake grew up in a notorious Black neighborhood in inner-city Baltimore that became the setting for the HBO series The Wire. There he became a self-described “closeted biracial person,” hostile toward white people while hiding the truth of his mother’s race. The son of a Black man and a white woman who met when interracial marriage was still illegal, Blake knew this much about his mother: She had vanished from his life not long after his birth, and her family had rejected him because of his race. But at the age of seventeen, Blake had a surprise encounter that uncovered a disturbing family secret and launched him on a question to reconcile with his white family. His search centered on two questions: Where is mother?” and “Where do I belong?” More Than I Imagined is Blake’s propulsive true story about how he answered those questions with the help of an interracial church, a loving caregiver’s sacrifice, and the recollection of an inexplicable childhood encounter that taught him the importance of forgiveness.
Author Bio
John Blake is an award-winning journalist at CNN.com, the online site for CNN. He has been honored by the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Academy of Religion and the Religion Communicators Council. Blake is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and a graduate of Howard University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Congratulations to John. He spoke at Piedmont University in 2014(?) and he was intelligent, sincere and articulate. He was already an award winning author then. I am excited to read his memoir!