What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know my own history as well as I should. The schools I attended coming up always gave me a brief and repetitive lesson in black history.

It went something like this: Black People were brought here from Africa to be slaves and pick cotton. Abraham Lincoln freed black people from slavery. There was segregation and Jim Crow. “The main heroes” of the Civil Rights Movement were Martin Luther King Jr. & Rosa Parks. AND If I was lucky, I learned about the “villainous” Malcolm X, Black Panther Party, and a few other people due to independent school projects.

As I’ve gotten older, I have realized how problematic not knowing my history is and I’ve been a lot more intentional in not just catching up, but learning my history within these last few years.

I really appreciate Dr. Michael Eric Dyson‘s “What Truth Sounds Like” because it highlights a historic meeting between Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Lorraine Hansberry, and Jerome Smith about black life and struggle. Each individual in the meeting represented different platforms as far as politicians, artists, intellectuals, and activists. Dr. Dyson connects the Black influencers from back in the day to their modern day counterparts, and creates a powerful call to action for us to speak truth to power. This book is such an essential read!

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- NM