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Portrait of Charles M. Blow

Charles M. Blow

I am fascinated by precedents and historical corollaries — I view human beings as stuck in rotation of our failings and frailties — so I often use history to contextualize our present-day politics. I’ve written, for example, about the enduring legacy of lynching and what the presidential election of 1912 can teach us about fighting extremism. I also reflect on lessons from my own life as a queer man who grew up poor in rural Louisiana.

I have written two New York Times best-selling books: “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” which has been turned into an opera, and “The Devil You Know,” which inspired the HBO documentary “South to Black Power.” I joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor, later becoming the paper’s graphics director and eventually the Times’s design director for news. I left in 2006 for National Geographic, where I was the magazine’s art director, before returning to The New York Times in 2008 as an Opinion columnist. I received a B.A. in mass communications from Grambling State University in Louisiana. I am a political analyst for MSNBC, and I live in Atlanta.

I strive to be accurate, fair and empathetic in my writing. Every piece I publish is fact-checked and edited. Along with all Times journalists, I am committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook.

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