CNN Profiles - John Blake - Senior Writer, CNN Digital - CNN

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Sins of the father; redemption of the son
John Blake, CNN
Sex, a family secret and the collapse of one of America's biggest megachurches. Pastor D.E. Paulk breaks his silence to tell CNN's John Blake the inside story behind the public humiliation that became his salvation.

Is MLK's greatest victory being undone?
John Blake, CNN
The forces that mobilized against marchers in Selma 50 years ago launched a movement of their own that relied on an audacious strategy: They borrowed protesters' tactics to blow a hole through the civil rights movement's "crown jewel."

Why Bigfoot is getting nervous
John Blake, CNN
Monster stories have been around for millennia, and just about every state has its own creature. Now monster hunters are hot on the trail, armed with cameras, drones and night-vision goggles. Can they catch one?

A preaching 'genius' faces his toughest convert
John Blake, CNN
Fred Craddock was a young preacher trying to find his voice when he received a call from his mother one day.

The new threat: 'Racism without racists'
John Blake, CNN
In a classic study on race, psychologists staged an experiment with two photographs that produced a surprising result.

How 'Game of Thrones' is like America
John Blake, CNN
A fire-breathing dragon has never vaporized a senator giving a pompous speech on C-SPAN. No candidate has ever poisoned a rival at his wedding reception, and no "white walker" zombie has ever dragged a screaming climate change skeptic away.

When you're the only white person in the room
John Blake, CNN
Flip open Amanda Shaffer's high school yearbook, and you'll notice something that stands out even more than her classmates' earnest smiles and big hairdos.

How Jimi Hendrix's race became his 'invisible legacy'
John Blake, CNN
Two weeks after closing Woodstock with his reinvention of "The Star Spangled Banner," Jimi Hendrix decided to offer a free concert for a group he called "my people."

Of course presidents lie
John Blake, CNN
"I cannot tell a lie."

The post-racial revolution will be televised
John Blake, CNN
It's a classic "Star Trek" story people love to tell.

Ghost hunters haunted by new terror: competition
John Blake, CNN
Zak Bagans tiptoes into a darkened bedroom, hunting a predator.

People participate in a Juneteenth celebration in Los Angeles on June 19, 2020. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and ensure all enslaved people be freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

As the nation celebrates Juneteenth, it's time to get rid of these three myths about slavery

Analysis: Why digital blackface is something you should be aware of

John Blake, seen left, with his younger brother, Patrick, on the right, sitting with Santa. Both boys grew up not knowing why their White mother disappeared from their life, and having no contact with ther relatives.

I've covered race for 25 years. But this was one story I didn't know how to tell

What a Black man discovered when he met the White mother he never knew

American actor and singer Harry Belafonte poses circa 1956. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer with a 'rebel heart,' dies at 96

People are silhouetted as the sun rises during an Easter sunrise service in Scituate, Massachusetts March 31, 2013. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY)

Predictions about the decline of Christianity in America may be premature

WASHINGTON, US - SEPTEMBER 26: American University professor Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, stands for a portrait at the School of International Service following a panel discussion on his new book How to Be an Antiracist in Washington, DC. Kendis discussion spoke on strategies to identify and overcome racism on September 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Michael A. McCoy/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Ibram X. Kendi says a backlash has 'crushed' the nation's racial reckoning. But there's one reason he remains hopeful

Sweet Brown's appearance on CNN affiliate KFOR took the internet by storm.

What's 'digital blackface?' And why is it wrong when White people use it?

Richard "Mac" McKinney

A Marine was plotting to bomb an Indiana mosque. Then his plans took a surprising turn

ATLANTA -- SEPT 14: Former President Jimmy Carter interviewed for "The Presidents' Gatekeepers" project at the Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, September 14, 2011.

Jimmy Carter embodies the 'road not taken' by many White evangelical Christians

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 23: Reverend William Barber II speaks during the Democratic Presidential Committee (DNC) summer meeting on August 23, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Thirteen of the democratic presidential candidates are speaking at the DNC's summer meeting. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

This prominent pastor says Christian nationalism is 'a form of heresy'

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The U.S. economy "has never worked fairly for Black Americans — or, really, for any American of color," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech delivered Monday, Jan. 17, 2022 one of many by national leaders acknowledging unmet needs for racial equality on Martin Luther King Day. (AP Photo, File)

'I Have a Dream' is MLK's most radical speech — not because of what he said then, but because of how America has changed since

You may be seeing a more 'woke' Santa this Christmas

How Teddy Roosevelt offers an 'ominous' lesson for Trump and the GOP in 2024

Though his squad had been ordered not to attempt any rescues of American pilots who had been shot down, Tom Hudner ignored that command and crash-landed into a mountain clearing to save his friend, Jesse Leroy Brown.

The dramatic true story behind the new movie 'Devotion'

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 23: Bono of U2 performs at The O2 Arena on October 23, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)

Bono's new book is more than a rock star memoir. It's also a powerful tribute to America

British and German meeting in No Man's Land during unofficial true Christmas 1914. Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Banks Sector. (Photo by: Robert Hunt/Windmill Books/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

What causes armies to lose the will to fight? Here's what history tells us -- and what Putin may soon find out

7095796 Frederick Douglass, (photo c/w) by Unknown photographer, (20th century); Collection of the New-York Historical Society, USA; © New York Historical Society ; out of copyright.

It's one of the most radical and prophetic speeches in American history. And hardly anyone knows about it

Richard "Mac" McKinney

A Marine who hated Muslims went to a mosque to plant a bomb. His intended victims ended up saving his life

There is arguably no one better equipped to explain how racism infiltrates White churches and how one can escape it than Philip Yancey, a popular Christian author.

A 'born and bred racist' recounts how he became a best-selling Christian author

The actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson, seen above, plays Miriel, the Queen-Regent of Numenor, an island kingdom of men in the new "Rings of Power" series.

When 'wokeness' comes to Middle-earth: Why some say diverse casting ruins the new 'Lord of the Rings' series

The author Eric Liu says the true power to remake society rests with ordinary people, not politicians or courts.

'You are more powerful than you think.' Why one man says it's too soon to write off democracy in America

Frederick Buechner

He 'made room for the terrible and the beautiful.' How Fred Buechner redefined the art of not preaching

Mike Colter as David Acosta in Evil episode 4, Season 3 streaming on Paramount+, 2022. Photo Credit: Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+

This TV series delivers us from three demons haunting America

About

John Blake has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, and The American Academy of Religion. He is the author of "More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew."