MACON — Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies will welcome John Blake, senior writer at CNN.com, for the seventh Laurie Byington Lecture on the Contemporary South on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Blake’s lecture “The Power of a Hopeless Cause” will examine his family’s story captured in the memoir More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew. The events in the story shaped how reporting on race and mental health has changed in the region and nation in the past 20 years. The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place at 6 p.m. in the Presidents Dining Room inside the University Center on the Macon campus.
“I am grateful to be able to bring Mr. Blake to Mercer and Macon, a person who carries as a personal story the deep complexity of the American South, to give the Byington Lecture this year,” said Dr. Doug Thompson, professor of history and director of the Spencer B. King Jr. Center. “His personal story provides a context for examining the complicated ways the region and the nation engage in difficult conversations, even when those conversations might lead to healing.”
Blake is an award-winning author and senior writer at CNN.com. His memoir was named the winner of the 2024 Christopher Awards, which celebrates books that “affirm the highest value of the human spirit.” Previous winners include former President Jimmy Carter and Pulitzer Prize-winning historians David McCullough and Jon Meacham. More Than I Imagined was also a gold medal winner in the 2024 Nonfiction Book Awards, a gold medal winner in the memoir/inspiration category in the 2024 Illumination Book Awards and a gold medal winner in the Nautilus Book Awards, which recognizes books that promote social change and spiritual growth. Blake was also awarded the 2024 Georgia Author of The Year Award for his memoir, which was also selected for the 2024 Books All Georgians Should Read by the Georgia Center for the Book.
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, Blake has also received the GLAAD Media Award.
The Byington Lecture Series promotes an examination of the contemporary American South. Madge T. Byington established the series to honor her daughter, a 1992 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and former member of the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board of Directors, and to assist the University in bringing a distinguished expert, or recognized leader in his/her field or discipline, to the Macon campus to give an annual lecture. In addition to private gifts from donors, the King Center is supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant.
About the Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies
The Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies fosters critical discussions about the many meanings of the South. As the only center for Southern studies in the United States dedicated to the education and enrichment of undergraduate students, the Center’s primary purpose is to examine the region’s complex history and culture through courses, conversations and events that are open, honest and accessible. For more information, visit kingcenter.mercer.edu.
