Truth Telling Project

Truth Telling Project Logo

The Truth Telling Project was started by David Ragland in November 2014 in the wake of the Ferguson riots. Pastor Cori Bush is co-Director. It was "inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa," which was headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"The Truth Telling Project is an initiative that promotes discussion of structural racism and injustice as a response to the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in August 2014 and the subsequent civil unrest in Ferguson."

The Truth Telling Project is a not-for-profit organization under the sponsorship of the NEIU Foundation.

Mission

According to their website, the Truth Telling Project "implements and sustains grassroots, community-centered truth-telling processes to share local voices, to educate America, and to support reconciliation for the purposes of eliminating structural violence and systemic racism against Black people in the United States."

The Radical Act of Truth Telling: For Ferguson and Beyond

In October 2015, an article at TheHoya addressed the founding of the Truth Telling Project,

"The event, titled “The Radical Act of Truth Telling: For Ferguson and Beyond,” was organized by the Georgetown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, the Justice and Peace Studies Program and the Center for Social Justice.

Founding of the Truth Telling Project

"...Co-Directors Cori Bush and David Ragland spoke about their experiences on the frontlines of the police brutality protests in Ferguson, Mo. Friday morning in the Healey Family Student Center.

According to both Bush and Ragland, their participation in the movement came at a personal price. Bush said that she has received violent threats, such as death threats from the Ku Klux Klan, but she said that she refuses to back down in the face of adversity.

“We keep protesting because they keep killing us,” Bush said. “It’s not OK that I have to fight to be free the way a white woman is free. What makes my son different that I have to fight for him to be able to walk out of my home and walk to the corner store and come back safely? Why do I have to fear? That is a reality in my community every day. My son may not come home.”

"Ragland called on members of the audience to join the resistance against police brutality.

"Police violence is contingent upon what America approves, and my hope is that the rest of America will begin to understand what happens in some communities and withdraw their consent so that democracy is possible, because police violence wouldn’t happen if white America said we don’t want it to happen,” Ragland said."

Angela Davis Meeting

Cori Bush with Angela Davis and Fania Davis

On July 20, 2015, Madeline Beckett from the Communist Party USA publication People's World published an article about an anti-police event keynoted by Angela Davis, who praised Fidel Castro held on June 27, 2015 sponsored by the Truth Telling Project and moderated by Cori Bush:

ST. LOUIS – As the one year anniversary of Michael Browns’ murder nears, St. Louis area residents gathered for the Violence in America: Exposure through Truth Telling presentation keynoted by Angela Davis, a long-time activist and outspoken critic of police violence. The event, held on June 27, was sponsored by the Truth Telling Project at Cardinal Ritter College Preparatory High School.

The sold-out event focused on building political activism and fighting institutionalized racism. Davis briefly reminded the audience that she had once been on the FBI’s ten most wanted list, that people actually feared her. Today, however, things are much different, she added. Perceptions have changed. Referencing Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president, she said, “History will absolve you.”

Davis is considered an icon by many today, a symbol of political resistance promoting radical, unapologetic social change. She, however, said she looks upon the protestors in Ferguson in admiration for their dedication to the struggle against racism.

Prior to the event, Davis, her sister Fania Davis (civil rights trial attorney and restorative justice practitioner) and event moderator Pastor Cori Bush, visited the site where Mike Brown was killed and touched the ground where he lay almost one year ago.

Throughout the event, the names of the black men and women who have suffered tragic deaths due to police brutality were echoed in remembrance. An outpouring of love was extended to the families of those who had been lost to racism and an unjust system.

Davis spoke of her global travels and how the people she encountered were inspired by the actions of the Ferguson protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement. Ferguson echoed throughout the world, as a “symbol of resistance” for oppressed people, she said.

“For me, as well as for people throughout the world, the very mention of Ferguson evokes struggle, perseverance, courage and a collective vision of the future.”

Due to the leadership of the Ferguson protesters, she added, many others have developed a much clearer understanding of systems of oppression and how people can assemble collectively to challenge and dismantle institutional racism and oppression.

Davis spoke directly to the female leaders of Black Lives Matter: “I love Martin. I love Malcolm. But this is the 21st century and we have learned that leadership is not a male prerogative. I know many of the brothers in this hall today know that women have always done the work…women should also be in the leadership!”

“When black women stand up as they did during the Montgomery bus boycott, as they did during the Black Liberation era, earthshaking changes can occur,” Davis concluded.

Davis also spoke in terms of strategy. She emphasized that entire systems of oppression must be challenged in order to bring about radical social changes.

She said, “…we also need to learn how to talk about race and racism. We don’t even have a vocabulary that permits us to engage in insightful conversations and it is precisely this lack of a vocabulary and the shallow consciousness of racism that is promoted by society that makes it possible for us to assume that for example changes in the law automatically bring about changes in the real world…”

Davis added, that a short paragraph in the Constitution does not do away with the hegemony of a country so incredibly saturated with racism. “The vestiges of slavery are still with us. Slavery was never fully abolished,” she continued.

On violence, Davis said, “…we could talk about multiple modes of violence, but a major mode of violence is the rearing of generations of black people who have not been allowed to imagine a future, who have not been allowed to have access to education that would encourage them to imagine a future.”

In conclusion, Davis added, “as radical activists we really have to begin to learn how to demand what we really want, not only what we think we can get,” to not lose sight of our goals. We have to learn to refuse to settle.