The Importance of Hope: John Blake

Award-winning journalist John Blake tells the story of his quest to reconcile with his white mother and the family he’d never met—and how faith brought them all together.

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 vanished from his life not long after his birth, and her family rejected him because of his race.

But at the age of seventeen, Blake had a surprise encounter that uncovered a disturbing family secret. This launched him on a quest to reconcile with his white family. His search centered on two questions: "Where is my mother?" and "Where do I belong?" His recent book, 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 an inexplicable childhood encounter that taught him the importance of forgiveness.

John Blake is an award-winning CNN journalist. He has been honored by the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Academy of Religion, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Religion Communicators Council. A recipient of the GLAAD Media Award, he has spoken at high schools, colleges, and symposiums, and in documentaries on race, religion, and politics. Blake is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.