Who is the author of What Truth Sounds Like?

The author of What Truth Sounds Like is Michael Eric Dyson.

Society & Culture

What Truth Sounds Like Book Summary - What Truth Sounds Like Book explained in key points

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What Truth Sounds Like summary

Name: What Truth Sounds Like
Rating: 4.6 (20 reviews)
Author: Michael Eric Dyson

Michael Eric Dyson

Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America

4.6 (20 ratings)

26 mins

Brief summary

What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson is a non-fiction book about a meeting in 1963 between James Baldwin and Robert F. Kennedy. The book explores race relations, politics, and the civil rights movement.

Topics

Black Lives Matter

Table of Contents

What Truth Sounds Like
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Learn how a three-hour meeting in 1963 is still important today.

These days, the legacy of the Kennedy family is closely tied to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but it wasn’t always this way. Throughout President John F. Kennedy’s administration, from 1961 to 1963, it seemed as though JFK was doing just enough to show that he cared about the lives of African Americans – which is to say, he was not doing nearly enough.

In fact, in its early days, the Kennedy administration appointed some downright racist federal judges in the South. Clearly, President Kennedy and his brother, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, were more interested in securing support for their second term than doing all they could do for equality and civil rights.

But then, something very important happened in Robert Kennedy’s life. In the summer of 1963, he met with a group of black artists and intellectuals, as well as an activist who’d been terribly beaten by law enforcement. As we’ll find out in the blinks ahead, Robert would initially consider the meeting a disaster, only to find it ended up greatly informing his political life in the years ahead.

Author Michael Eric Dyson suggests that this is the meeting that got Robert Kennedy woke, and that we need a whole lot more meetings like this today if we hope to continue making real progress politically and morally in the United States. These blinks help explain why this is the case.

In these blinks, you’ll find

why March 24, 1963, is a significant day in American history;
which modern writer Toni Morrison has compared to James Baldwin; and
why the fictional land of Wakanda is so meaningful.

The lives of Robert Kennedy and James Baldwin were quite different, but both struggled with difficult truths.

For much of his life, Robert F. Kennedy lived in the shadow of his brothers, especially his older brother by eight years, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States.

When his brother became president in 1960, it was with some hesitation that Robert accepted the position of attorney general in the Kennedy administration. In taking on this role, Robert was determined to establish himself as an individual and a political force in his own right.

Due to his short stature, limited experience as an attorney and insinuations that he got the job out of nepotism, Robert was eager to prove himself. As it turned out, America was about to enter the tumultuous sixties, and it gave the runt of the Kennedy litter plenty of opportunities to make some important decisions, especially around the issue of civil rights.

One of the people who was very invested in those decisions was the celebrated writer, James Baldwin.

Baldwin grew up in Harlem, the New York neighborhood that’s been home to countless black artists and intellectuals. Luminaries hailing from there include jazz legends Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, esteemed actor Paul Robeson and the influential author and activist W. E. B. Du Bois.

Starting out as a young preacher in a storefront Pentecostal church, Baldwin would use his tremendous grasp of language to become the nation’s preeminent writer, his face gracing the cover of Time magazine in 1963. This high-profile attention was due to his incendiary New Yorker essays, which became the book The Fire Next Time.

Baldwin’s writing tackled the thorny issues of race and religion in America with a such a gripping and compelling style that it made Baldwin a spokesperson for the black community. However, because Baldwin was a gay man, some of the other black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., struggled to embrace his voice.

While Baldwin and Kennedy were, of course, quite different people, by 1963, they were both facing a segregated nation that was growing increasingly violent and searching for a way to move forward. In August 1962, King had given his “I have a dream” speech, but it was still unclear how the Kennedy administration was going to respond.

In 1963, the stage was set for a remarkable meeting to occur between Robert F. Kennedy and James Baldwin.

Today, many people consider John F. Kennedy to be one of the more progressive presidents in terms of civil rights, but the truth is that the black community grew quite fed up with his lack of action. At the start of his presidency, it’s safe to say that the president was downright ambivalent about civil rights. His brother Robert was a bit more proactive.

In April 1963, a nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama led by Martin Luther King, Jr. ended with men, women and children alike being blasted with fire hoses, set upon by dogs and beaten with clubs. As attorney general, Robert Kennedy had sent mediators down to help de-escalate the situation and make sure no further protesters were hurt. The effort helped earn the Kennedy administration strong rebuke from white politicians and leaders in the South.

Those attending the meeting included pillars of the black community who used their profession in progressive ways.

It was short notice, but James Baldwin managed to get some big names to show up for an afternoon meeting with Robert Kennedy. Attendees included popular singer Harry Belafonte; the actress, Lena Horne; the highly respected scholar and psychologist, Kenneth Clark; and the playwright of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry.

Hansberry had been an activist for women’s rights and black rights since before Baldwin joined the cause. For years, she’d been putting social commentary and progressive messages into her work, and her ability to mix artistic integrity with political purposefulness made her an inspirational figure for Baldwin.

The most significant person at the meeting was Jerome Smith, a Freedom Rider and witness to the black experience.

On the following morning, there was a front-page headline in the New York Times about the meeting: “Robert Kennedy Consults Negroes Here About North.” The subtitle mentioned a few of the attendees, including Lena Horne and James Baldwin, but there was a lesser-known name that really stole the show: Jerome Smith, a Freedom Rider who had been viciously beaten by the police and Southern thugs.

Freedom Riders were nonviolent activists who rode on buses throughout the South to fight segregation, and now Smith was in New York receiving medical treatment for his wounds.

The 1963 meeting was a clash between witnesses and policy that still goes on today.

For nearly three hours, Robert Kennedy was forced to listen uncomfortably to an emotional barrage. It wasn’t the level-headed, clear-eyed discussion that Kennedy had hoped for, so when it was all over, he considered the meeting an unequivocal disaster.

Belafonte and Clark tried to console him afterward, but Kennedy felt hurt and upset that no one was willing to talk about laws, facts and policies. Instead, people wanted Kennedy to bear witness to what was going on in the parts of the nation he hadn’t seen first-hand – the places where Jerome Smith had been – and to recognize how the issue of racism was more a moral issue than a legal one.

We need more Robert Kennedys – politicians who know that helping the black community helps everyone.

Tragically, Robert Kennedy was shot dead after a campaign speech in Los Angeles, on June 5, 1968, just a couple of months after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. When it happened, the author was only nine years old, but he remembers thinking how Robert Kennedy was the first white man he believed honestly cared for black folk.

The author also believes that politicians need to return to that room in 1963 and learn, as Robert Kennedy did, about how the nation as a whole can benefit from addressing the issue of black equality.

Black artists, as well as athletes, are still being progressive with their work today.

A lot has changed in the music industry since the days of Harry Belafonte. There used to be a very concerted effort in the black community to keep a positive media image at all times. Things like racial insecurities, misogyny or materialism were kept private – that is, until hip-hop arrived and made these things very public.

Belafonte has been vocal over the years in calling out black entertainers or even politicians like former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who, in his eyes, didn’t do enough to forward the black cause. While he’s even been critical of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, the truth is there are a great many entertainers and athletes carrying the Belafonte torch.

There are significant black intellectuals working today, though not always harmoniously.

James Baldwin set huge standards for black intellectuals. Few could hope to write as well and so strikingly reveal the truth about the moral issue of racism in America.

Nevertheless, Baldwin had his critics, including the Black Panther leader, Eldridge Cleaver, who was especially venomous in denouncing Baldwin – perhaps because of his homosexuality, which Cleaver saw as a “sickness.” But the clash between Baldwin and Cleaver also reveals a general conflict between intellectuals and radical activists that we can still see today.

Hamilton, Get Out and Black Panther offer remarkable commentaries on the black experience.

Artists like Harry Belafonte and his mentor, the actor Paul Robeson, made it clear a long time ago that pop culture has the ability to both enlighten and empower.

Robeson used his platform as one of the great actors of his time to call for social change in such a defiant way that it earned him a blacklisting and cost him his career. Belafonte learned from this and was more sly in defying white norms while inspiring the black community.

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What is What Truth Sounds Like about?

What Truth Sounds Like (2018) revisits a relatively short meeting in 1963 between Robert Kennedy and a group of black artists, using it as a jumping-off point for the ongoing conversation about race in America. This meeting was an eye-opening experience for Kennedy, and author Michael Eric Dyson explains why more politicians need to be woken up to the realities of the black experience. Dyson also takes a look at some of the important writers and artists who are keeping the conversation alive today.

What Truth Sounds Like Review

What Truth Sounds Like (2018) by Michael Eric Dyson is a thought-provoking exploration of race and power in America, and it's definitely a book worth reading. Here's why:

Through compelling stories and insightful analysis, Dyson sheds light on the ongoing struggle for racial equality, sparking important conversations.
His nuanced examination of cultural and political dynamics presents a comprehensive picture of the challenges faced by marginalized communities in America today.
By addressing difficult topics head-on, Dyson creates a powerful narrative that confronts readers with uncomfortable truths, making it impossible to ignore.

Who should read What Truth Sounds Like?

Students of American history and sociology
Readers interested in black culture
Activists and anyone who wants to get woke

About the Author

Michael Eric Dyson is one of America’s most respected public intellectuals and the current University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. His writing can be found in the editorial pages of the New York Times and the New Republic, and in the bestselling book Tears We Cannot Stop (2017).

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