In March 2025, Lowery resigned from his job at American University amid allegations that he had made inappropriate sexual comments and unwanted sexual advances toward students and journalists.[4] In May 2025, theColumbia Journalism Review published allegations of sexual misconduct against Lowery, saying he exhibited a "pattern of predatory behavior toward young women in journalism" spanning from 2018 to 2024.[5]
In 2014, theNational Association of Black Journalists named Lowery "Emerging Journalist of the Year".[10] Lowery moved toThe Washington Post in 2014;The Washingtonian described him in 2015 as the paper's "rising star...a terrific reporter" with a track record for "establishing deep sources, writing colorful solo pieces, and contributing to team coverage."[9] Lowery has served as a judge for theAmerican Mosaic Journalism Prize each year from 2018-2025.[11][12][13][14]
In August 2014, Lowery covered theFerguson protests forThe Post. On August 13, Lowery andHuffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were arrested in aMcDonald's. Journalism groups as well as Lowery's and Reilly's employers condemned the arrests, saying they were, as theColumbia Journalism Review characterized it, "deliberate and unjustifiable attempts to interfere with the press."[15] A year later, shortly before the statute of limitations was set to expire,St. Louis County prosecutors charged Lowery and Reilly with trespassing and interfering with a police officer.[16] In May 2016, prosecutors dropped all charges against Reilly and Lowery in exchange for an agreement that the reporters would not sue the county.[17]
Lowery was a lead (also seeKimbriell Kelly), on thePost's "Fatal Force" project,[18][19] a database that tracked 990 police shootings in 2015.[20] At the time, the federal government had no comprehensive, nationwide data on police killings;[21] the most systematic data available came from databases compiled by independent, grassroots organizations likeFatal Encounters,Stolen Lives Project, Operation Ghetto Storm, and Killed by Police.[22] Drawing on these databases as well as local newspaper reports, law enforcement websites and social media, Lowery and colleagues built out the Post's Fatal Force database. The project won thePulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016,[23] and theJustice Department announced a pilot program to begin collecting a more comprehensive set ofuse-of-force statistics in 2017.[24]
Lowery's first bookThey Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement was published November 15, 2016 byLittle, Brown.[25] The book describes theBlack Lives Matter movement in the context of U.S. history as well as Lowery's personal history.The Seattle Times listed it as among the fall releases they "can't wait to read".[26]The Boston Globe said Lowery "offers fresh insights into what it means to cover a broad national story about race in a rigorous and sustained way."[27] Noting that Lowery wrote the book at 25,The New York Times said, "His book is electric, because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart."[28]
Lowery joinedCBS News in 2020. It was speculated that part of the reason for Lowery's departure fromThe Washington Post was that he was unhappy with the newspaper'ssocial media policy for its journalists, which discouraged some of his more provocative comments on Twitter and elsewhere; Lowery had clashed with the managing editors before on content in his tweets.[32] At CBS News, he worked on60 in 6, a shorter six-minute spinoff of60 Minutes forQuibi.[3]
In September 2023, Lowery joined the faculty of theAmerican University School of Communication where he served as an associate professor of investigative journalism and as the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop.[33] In March 2025, Lowery resigned from American University amid allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct.[4][34]
In March 2025, Lowery resigned from American University after being accused of at least three Title IX complaints, in which he was alleged to have made inappropriate sexual comments in meetings with students and other abusive behavior towards journalists.[35]
In May 2025, theColumbia Journalism Review reported that Lowery was accused of sexually assaulting at least four women.[36]
