How to tell ourselves the truth about the history of slavery

How do we remember the darkest parts of our collective past—from slavery in the U.S. to the Holocaust in Germany—while moving steadily forward? This question has driven poet and journalist Clint Smith to travel the U.S. and cross oceans in search of places, stories, and public memorials that deepen our shared understanding of what human beings have done to each other, and how we can collectively heal. He is the author of the book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, and the new book of poems, Above Ground. 

In the premiere episode of Almost There, Dwayne and Clint discuss places across the U.S. that successfully—and not-so-successfully—confront the history of slavery; what Clint learned visiting Holocaust memorials in Germany for his Atlantic cover story; and Clint’s formative experience as a high school English teacher. Plus, Dwayne reads one of Clint’s new poems.