Using the power of art to illuminate the ongoing struggle to realize America's democratic ideals and model the commitment to act for the common good.
Using the power of art to illuminate the ongoing struggle to realize America's democratic ideals and model the commitment to act for the common good.
Americans Who Tell the Truth
We are dedicated to the belief that a profound understanding of citizenship is the only safeguard of democracy and the best defense of social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. Working with our portraits and narratives of courageous citizens, Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) crafts collaborative educational and community experiences that illuminate the ongoing struggle to realize America’s democratic ideals and model the commitment to act for the common good.
By The Numbers
Painted
in the Samantha Smith Challenge
Hosted Portrait Exhibits
Countless New Activists Inspired
Programs
AWTT has a wide range of educational and community offerings. From elementary schools to graduate programs, AWTT’s mission is to use the portraits of these courageous activists as learning opportunities that encourage everyone to become engaged citizens as they address issues of social, racial, environmental, and economic justice. AWTT offers workshops, speaking engagements, and lesson plans and encourages schools, universities, and communities to host portrait exhibits. AWTT offers lessons and themed exhibits around environmental justice, civil rights, the media, indigenous issues, women’s rights, and much more.
Education
AWTT harnesses the power of teaching social justice through the arts and helps students learn to become courageous, engaged citizens.
Exhibits & Community Engagement
AWTT portraits inspire a future of active citizenship in your community, and they are available for an exhibit at your institution or in your community.
“AWTT is able to ‘story’ American social justice advocates that celebrate and bring them to life for generations to come.”
Bill Bigelow
Zinn Education Project Director
Shop
Shop AWTT products – prints, t-shirts, mugs, and more – to support education and community programming for Americans Who Tell the Truth. Know that you are helping inspire citizenship, activism, and work for the common good.Upcoming Events

Shetterly Lecture: Art in an Age of Democratic Upheaval
Robert Shetterly will deliver the Center for Global Humanities Lecture, at Innovation Hall on the University of New England Portland Campus, on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at 6 p.m.
What's New

Just to Watch him Die
When I was just a baby, my mama told me, “SonAlways be a good boy, don′t ever play with guns”But I shot a man in

Sports, Trump and Unruling the Game
Ever since discovering playground kickball in the second grade, I have loved sports. In high school I ran track (a mediocre 400 meters), played football (a

Claudette Colvin 1939-2026
“… as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adults around here just say something? Say it so that they know we don’t accept





