The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto
by Charles M. Blow

With Georgia on the radar—and state and city electorates across the country paying attention—acclaimed columnist and author Charles Blow delivers a resounding proposal for Black Americans to amass political power and fight white supremacy. The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto (Harper) goes on sale on January 26, 2021, and is confidential for the time being. I would love to put the galleys in your hands—ideally, both the PDF and a physical copy. Please forward me your best address for the latter.

Blow never wanted to write a “race book.” But as violence against Black people—both physical and psychological—seemed only to increase in recent years, culminating in the historic pandemic and protests of the summer of 2020, he felt compelled to write a new story for Black Americans. He envisioned a succinct, counterintuitive, and impassioned corrective to the myths that have for too long governed our thinking about race and geography in America. Drawing on both political observations and personal experience as a Black son of the South, Charles set out to offer a call to action by which Black people can finally achieve equality, on their own terms.

So what will it take to make lasting change when small steps have so frequently failed? It’s going to take an unprecedented shift in power. The Devil You Know is a groundbreaking manifesto, proposing nothing short of the most audacious power play by Black people in the history of this country.