The fire burned from within their chests. Tired of anti-Black lies twisting our truths, they turned their pens into swords and their voices into battle cries, showing us just how piercing Black truth telling can be.
Ida B. Wells:
A fierce journalist, nothing could stop Ida B. Wells from writing Black truths. Even after being thrown from a train, her printing press burning down, and numerous death threats, she knew truth telling was key to our liberation.
She attended national and international conferences, publicly calling out those who ignored the lynching violence many Black southerners faced.
Zora Neale Hurston:
Zora Neale Hurston, sick of anti-Blackness twisting our narratives. documented authentic Black stories. She wrote “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,” unearthing the lost narrative of Cudjo Lewis, survivor of the Clotilda slave ship.
Hurston received lots of pushback but she understood that truth telling was how we got on.
James Baldwin:
James Baldwin admitted he wouldn’t have been able to write any of his other works had he not gotten real about his own truth in his first novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”
The book addresses his pain and abandonment from his father. Telling his truth set him free.
Sharing our narratives is the basis behind The Truth Telling Project. The organization believes Black truth telling is an empowering mode of resistance.
Our narratives are direct links to the past and present, but are also key for our future. How can truth telling inform how we build Black liberated futures?