Who We Are
Learning, Sharing and Wearing American History
We are educators, parents, and learners influenced by historians, psychologists, researchers, business advisors, athletes, and concerned citizens.
About Us
TruthTeeTold discovers, resuscitates, and elevates American history through truth-telling with a multipronged approach that offers engaging resources, including QR code history-merch. Today, some people in decision-making positions have imposed harmful agendas, designed to hide, erase, and advance a false narrative of American history. These fabulists manufacture a past that disavows the complete story of an inclusive American experience.
The National Memorial for Peace & Justice, Montgomery, AL. Corten Steel Beams. Photo by S. Hicks-Bartlett, PhD.
We are you. We are individuals, single, spoken for, educators, parents, family, neighbors, colleagues, your everyday Tanisha, Jane, John, Javier, Rosa, Yukiko, Teng, and Tyrone.
Martin Luther King Jr at his famous "I Have A Dream" speech
Our Story
TruthTeeTold examines the lived experiences of those who came before and left an indelible mark on America. Our Tees and totes chronicle American history, in all its glorious multicultural strength. Here we acknowledge the good, the bad, and the ugly. TruthTeeTold is about telling American history from the bottom up; it’s about shining a light on what came before and about walking bravely through the chapters of our history that make America, America. TruthTeeTold embraces lessons from our past to build a more equitable future for everyone. Our beautiful, minimalist Supima cotton Tees and sustainably produced totes are made fully in America and serve as a tangible reminder of a time when cotton was considered king. We tell the stories of America in a unique way using the latest technologies to present history in an educational and compelling fashion. Here you will find the people, places, and events that we all need to know. With rigorously checked historical records, our evidence counterframes the deniers and the American fictions that customarily prioritize ignorance over truth. Our children's education and future deserves better. As a nation, we deserve better.
TruthTeeTold lights a path to understanding where we’ve been and where we’re going and the feasible strategies for exciting and ongoing learning. As Sociology Professor Connie McNeely, of George Mason University always encourages: "Onward and Upward!"
A simple scan unlocks the past—because history should never be forgotten.
Our Goals
Wear and carry history with our Tees & Totes. We begin our history learning adventure with the mindset of “Each one, Teach One.” Embedded in each item is a QR code that tells a story rarely learned in school. We give thanks to Mr. Hara Masahiro, a Denso Wave employee in Japan who created the QR code in 1994. Today, QR codes are ubiquitous and used in advertising, marketing, and tracking an assortment of useful data. We employ QR codes to tell history, specifically, American history. TruthTeeTold QR codes are the gateway to a wealth of knowledge, resources, and discoveries long ignored and buried by conscious omission and the deliberate erasure of the whole story. Our minimalist preference displays only a QR code on the Tee-shirts, which precludes those institutions and spaces that prohibit clothing with lettering and bold graphics. Unscanned QR codes are neutral, their content is unknown to the naked eye. The wearer can don history and converse about codes with others. Eventually, our QR codes will exist on additional items such as hoodies, sweat pants, hats, mugs, and notebooks. More than an endeavor for reclaiming our erased and denied history, our items promote history as "necessary education" and a creative approach to “saytheirname” and tell American stories.
Beyond the QR Codes
We want to engage others with a passion to learn and support American history, and to contribute to TruthTeeTold. We plan to solicit essay writing and book review opportunities crafted by young people. We want their help in discovering the "hidden figures" in their hometown. As we grow, we will create to support opportunities for educators for their work in keeping history alive in the classroom and rewarding them and their students for participating in keeping American history alive.
