menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Clint Smith shows how America’s growth requires facing its past

5 1
05.05.2025

A visitor takes a photograph of the Absolute Equality Mural, which was unvailed last Juneteenth, with his cellphone, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Galveston, Texas.

There are two decidedly different camps when it comes to the American experience: Some people are honest about our history, and some are not.

If the truth weren't an issue, however, there would not be a concerted effort to erase certain chapters of American history by purging museums of artifacts and iconography deemed un-American and removing murals that remind us of the nation's darkest moments.

I talked with New York Times best-selling author Clint Smith, an author and poet who recently appeared at the Jung Center Houston's spring benefit. A native of New Orleans, Smith moved with his family as a teen to Houston after Hurricane Katrina.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

He shared with me a different perspective to consider in this discussion about the truth and lies of our past.

SEWING:

© Houston Chronicle