Robert Shetterly's Americans Who Tell The Truth

This short video from CNN features AWTT portrait subject Stephen Ritz, whose contagious energy continues to help feed the Bronx. View video here

Although the birth date of Mary Harris Jones is disputed, many have adopted the date of her baptism (Cork, Ireland; August 1, 1837)to celebrate her birthday each year. Here is a sampling of stories memorializing her in our time: The Writer's Almanac(July 31, 2020) Happy 175th Birthday, Mother Jones!

We cannot express the depth of our gratitude to John Lewis. He made good trouble. As a young man I tasted the bitter fruits of segregation and racial discrimination, and I didn’t like it. I used to ask my parents, my grandparents, and my great grandparents, ‘Why segregation? Why racial discrimination?’ And they would say, ‘That’s the way it is.

Today is the birthday of Woodrow Wilson, aka "Woody" Guthrie, born in Okemah, Oklahoma (1912). Woody Guthrie never finished high school, but he spent his spare time reading books at the local public library. He took occasional jobs as a sign painter and started playing music on a guitar he found in the street.

The U.S. celebrates this Independence Day amid nationwide protests and calls for systemic reforms. In this short film, five young descendants of Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which asks all of us to consider America's long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.