ABOUT
US
The Truth Telling Project supports and implements grassroots, community-centered truth-telling and reparations processes to achieve Black liberation and BIPOC solidarity, amplify traditionally silenced and disenfranchised voices, and abolish white supremacy.
We are a diverse community of organizers, activists, artists, writers, teachers, practitioners and scholars. Our board represents a cross-section of individuals who are committed to structural change, truth telling, healing trauma, and repair. Our networks include Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities from rural and urban locales. We share in common a vision for a just, equitable, and sustainable society free of state-sanctioned violence and systemic racism.
Join the Movement
Our Team
Dr. David Ragland is a writer, scholar, and activist with a focus on racial justice, reparations and abolition. He is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director for Culture, Organizing, and Reparations at the Truth Telling Project, as well as a special advisor to Congresswoman Cori Bush and a number of progressive political candidates throughout the U.S.
Dr. David Ragland
Rachel Davis is an Operations Associate and organizer with The Truth Telling Project. She is also an anti-racist activist/organizer who has organized in North Carolina’s Wake, Orange, Chatham, and Alamance Counties against police brutality and white supremacy. When she’s not working or participating in activism, she enjoys foraging, hiking, traveling, art, and local folklore.
Rachel Davis
Our Advisory Council
Aaron Dorsey, Program and Policy Analyst at National Education Association
Thalia Carroll-Cachimuel, an Indigenous history curriculum contributor for Teaching Tolerance and advocate for Indigenous and Latinx human rights
Jodie Geddes, an international speaker on restorative justice, author, and advocate for racial healing and justice
Cris Toffolo, Founding Advisory
Member of The Truth Telling Project
and current Treasurer
Kian Furnace, MPA, Public Administrator and Program Manager
Woullard Lett, Male Co-chair, New
England chapter of N’COBRA
Dr. Arthur Romano, Scholar-practitioner and Assistant Professor at GMU’s School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
Max Hess, of Atlanta Fellowship of Reconciliation
Yolanda Fountain, Democratic County Committeewoman in Ferguson, Missouri, who was the first female African American mayor of Jennings, Missouri
Our History
What We Do
The Truth Telling Project (TTP) works to help people understand the deep-seated institutional racism that allows for police violence to occur and the pervasive impact that violence has on families and their communities. We ultimately encourage empathy and anti-racist learning among allied communities, and we lead people to The Movement for Black Lives and other racial justice organizations as supporters.
Our Story
TTP was founded in August 2014 by community activists in the St. Louis area following the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown, Jr., the protests that followed, and the anger it generated throughout the community. We engage in the truth telling of stories that galvanize thoughtful, empathetic and educated allies for Black communities and communities of color. By encouraging “witnesses” to listen to and reflect on voices “from the margins,” our hope is that more and more people become active participants in ending the structural and militarized violence in the U.S.
Our Partners
Our Funding Sources
We are a collaborative working group funded by donations from our supporters and grants from philanthropic organizations.
Our fiscal sponsor is NorthEastern Illinois University.