In his second book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto (Harper, Jan. 26), New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow argues that the Northern and Western destination cities to which Black people fled during the Great Migration failed to deliver on the American dream. After abandoning the Jim Crow South, Black people continued to face state-sanctioned violence, segregation, discrimination, and poverty. What’s more, they lacked representation at every level of government.

His solution? Black people who can should move back to their Southern ancestral lands to reconnect with their roots and build electoral power. He believes so completely in his thesis that last January, after 26 years of living in New York City, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

We spoke over the phone about relocation as a political act and the recent elections. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Less than a year after you moved here, Georgia voters elected Joe Biden for president and two Democratic U.S. senators, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is the first Black senator from Georgia. Did this surprise you?

I am in awe. I had not even considered it when I was writing the book or moving to Georgia. In an earlier draft, I wrote about how Stacey Abrams almost became governor and that it wouldn’t take much more to put her over the top. I turned the book in after the state went for Biden but before the runoff. What happened with the elections served as proof of the book’s central concept.

Who do you credit for these Democratic wins?

There was amazing organizing by a whole lot of people, including Stacey Abrams. But I also credit reverse migration. Georgia’s Black population doubled from 1990 to 2020, from 1.7 million people to 3.4 million people. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win in Georgia was Bill Clinton in 1992, when Black people made up only 25% of the state. Now Black people are 33% of the state. This is a seismic shift in electoral politics.

Do you have any advice about where Black people should relocate for the reverse migration to be most effective?

If a few hundred thousand Black people move to Delaware, it will be a majority Black state. If 700,000 Black people move to Mississippi, it will be a majority Black state. There are options for everyone. There are Deep South options like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. There are coastal options that feel Northern like Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

Do you think stereotypes about the South play a role in preventing Black people from returning?

There are a lot of hesitations and mythologies about the South. But Black people make up only 5% of California. There is not a single majority Black city in the state. Police departments in Los Angeles have been predatory for the longest time. California is where SWAT teams were invented to deal with the Black Panthers.

Northern and western cities have massive concentrations of poverty with deleterious effects. Redlining segregated those cities and made them into functional refugee camps. Formerly redlined neighborhoods are 13% warmer because there are no trees to absorb pollution or provide shade.

The majority of Black mayors are in the South, and almost every major city in the South has a Black mayor. They are young, dynamic, and trying to be transformative. New York City had one Black mayor 30 years ago. The backlash gave us Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, who initiated stop and frisk. New York has not produced a single Black senator in its history.

Is there an ideal timeline for a reverse migration?

The window on Black people making this move is closing. According to an article in the Washington Post, by 2040, 70% of Americans will live in the 15 largest states and will be represented by only 30 senators. The other 30% of the U.S. will live in 35 states and will be represented by 70 senators. This latter group will be disproportionately White, rural, and elderly.

If we believe that reparations and police reform will be hard to achieve with this current Senate, think about how hard it will be in a future Senate. If we’re concerned about the confirmation of hostile judges, it will be worse with the future Senate.

In 30 years, the Southwest will be majority Hispanic, twice the Black population in the entire United States. Asians will take the second minority position. Black people will be third. One-third of Hispanics voted for Trump, as did one-third of Asians. Those votes will cancel the Black vote even if 100% of Black voters voted for a Democratic candidate.

We have to make a choice now about whether we want state-level political power. We don’t have forever.

Do you worry that Southern states’ disenfranchisement of Black voters could thwart Black people’s ability to build political power after they move here?

Fighting is part of the plan. This is a generational undertaking, not a silver bullet to solve all the problems. White supremacy will fight to the death to maintain itself. Fear has no place in the quest of Black liberation. If you’re afraid of the risk involved in reverse migration, this is not your fight. This is for the brave. This is for the radicals.

Georgia-based Anjali Enjeti is the author of an essay collection, Southbound, and a novel, The Parted Earth.