David Ragland

Paul Snodgrass — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 18:12:47 +0000

David Ragland Paul Snodgrass Fri, 06/03/2022 - 14:12

Co-founder of the Truth Telling Project of Ferguson

Adjunct Faculty, Carter School

Biography

Dr David Ragland is a writer, scholar, and activist with a focus on racial justice, reparations and abolition. He is a co-founder and co-executive director for Culture, Organizing and Reparations at the Truth Telling Project and is currently the director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign. David Ragland is also a special advisor to Congresswoman Cori Bush and a number of progressive political candidates throughout the U.S.

In the aftermath of Mike Brown Jr.’s murder in Ferguson, Mo.,David, and Congresswoman Cori Bush founded the Truth Telling Project to help community members control their own narrative, document abuses by law enforcement, uplift stories of those who experience police violence and heal from past and ongoing trauma through truth telling. Additionally, he serves as Director of Reparations at Jubilee Justice, an Impact Investment Firm supporting regenerative agriculture throughout the South eastern seaboard and critical education for traditional wealth holders.Most recently, David is a founding member in the creation of the Kibilio Community and Farms Collective, a Queer Black-Led Intentional community focused on healing and reparations.

Georgetown University’s Advocacy lab included Dr. Ragland’s research, which was named among the “most important research on advocacy” in the last forty years. David was recently inducted into Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College. In the past, David served as the Senior Bayard Rustin Fellow at Fellowship of Reconciliation, board member for the Peace and Justice Studies Association and the United Nations representative for the International Peace Research Association.

Among his published works, David’s peer-reviewed article on Truth-Telling and Decoloniality appeared in a recent issue of the International Journal of Human Rights Education. He has recently completed a series of articles on reparations for Yes! Magazine.

David currently teaches the Building a Culture of Reparations and Transitional Justice through the Grassroots Reparations Campaign and the Truth Telling Project. He has taught in Depth Psychology, Eco-Psychology and Community Liberation at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has previously taught Educational Theory, Multicultural Education, Education for Peace and Human Rights, Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Movements at Bucknell University, Vassar College, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and Juniata College.

Degrees

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Toledo
M.A., Peace Education, Teachers College of Columbia University
M.A., International Affairs, Washington University in St. Louis

The Carter School Welcomes Congresswoman Cori Bush as Adjunct Faculty

Paul Snodgrass — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 15:47:18 +0000

The Carter School Welcomes Congresswoman Cori Bush as Adjunct Faculty Paul Snodgrass Fri, 06/03/2022 - 11:47

In This Story

David Ragland

Arthur Romano

This summer, Congresswoman Cori Bush will be co-teaching a graduate-level course entitled, “The Public Pedagogy of Truth and Reparations.” Congresswoman Bush is a leadings voice for racial justice and human rights and the first Black woman to represent Missouri’s 1st Congressional District. Congresswoman Bush is a nurse, Black Lives Matter activist, ordained pastor, and former childcare worker. In this course, students will hear directly from Congresswoman Bush and activist, writer, and activist-scholar Dr. David Ragland about their national work building infrastructure and support for reparations and locally-led truth telling processes and commissions in the US. Representative Bush and Dr. Ragland will walk through their experiences during the Ferguson protests and beyond, and introduce the truth processes they helped create to center the voices of community members that have been impacted by racialized forms of violence.

This course will look at the creation of interrelated mechanisms: truth telling processes, participatory critical pedagogy and reparations as political and moral practices that can help address state sponsored violence against African Americans and other targeted groups while opening space for to imagine possibilities for greater racial justice in the United States and abroad. Students will meet other practitioners working on these issues from across the country and learn about cutting-edge practices being employed to address long running issues of structural violence and systemic racism. As a result, students will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of building grassroots initiatives that support communities directly impacted by violence and gain greater fluency and competence in engaging larger policy debates and legislation at the Federal level.

This course builds on previous efforts at the Carter School to support truth-telling and healing work in response to police violence and other forms of racial injustice. In 2014, Congresswoman Bush co-founded the Truthtelling Project (TTP) along with Dr. Ragland following the murder of Michael Brown. At that time, Congresswoman Bush and Dr. Ragland collaborated with Carter School faculty member Arthur Romano and students at the school in developing resources for hosting Truthtelling events.The Truthtelling Project model led to over 60 events nationally that impacted thousands of people and advanced national conversations about the impacts of police violence on communities across the country and the power of communities to take the lead on seeking justice. The Truthtelling Project also review a MacArthur grant for their impactful work. This course provides an opportunity for another generation of Carter School students to better understand and consider their contribution to the work of truth, reparations and reconciliation.

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