What Truth Sounds Like

A Pivotal Encounter That Transformed Race Relations in America

Named a 2018 Notable Work of Nonfiction by The Washington Post

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner, The 2018 Southern Book Prize

In 1963, a meeting between Attorney General Robert Kennedy and black luminaries James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Kenneth Clark, and Jerome Smith forever altered the course of the civil rights movement. Smith''s unfiltered fury at the nation''s racist tendencies left Kennedy deeply shaken, prompting him to empathize with the black experience and catalyzing a shift in his policies.

What Truth Sounds Like explores this pivotal encounter and the conflicts it laid bare – between conscience and politics, morality and power – in addressing race. Every major argument about race that persists today, from dissent and patriotism to the responsibility of black leaders in effecting change, was heard in that room.

Bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson masterfully refracts our present racial divisions through the prism of this historic meeting. A tour de force of searing prose and seminal brilliance, the book offers a compelling look at the intersections of race, democracy, and the ongoing struggle for social justice.

Hailed as "a work of searing prose and seminal brilliance" by Joy-Ann Reid and "a beautifully written book" by Chris Matthews, What Truth Sounds Like is a must-read for anyone grappling with the state of race relations in America today.