BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  OCT 13, 2025 

In September, I read a column by Colbert K. King in the Washington Post that has troubled me ever since. It was his last column in the Post after he announced in June that he was scaling back, in part due to an illness that hospitalized him.

I’ve followed King for many years in Washington because of his tempered insights, reasoned thinking, seasoned by his intolerance for injustice. His character, calmness, and the kind of civic intimacy he expressed for his beloved city gave you the sense that he could be trusted and that his commentaries were an honest and sincere reflection of his experiences and perspective.

King, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize who has an endowed chair in his honor at Howard University, has had a distinguished career in journalism that began and has ended with the Post.

The September column seemed ominous. “My time is passing, and the hour is dark,” he wrote, “but I hold faith that wrong will be righted in the end.” Continue reading →