We Can Write Our Way to Freedom: A Legacy of Literary Liberation

“We mean to plead our own cause. No longer will others speak for us.”

This powerful quote is how editors John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish introduced their readers to Freedom’s Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States. No longer willing to be caricatured, demonized, exploited, and ignored by the mainstream press, these two free men of color launched Freedom’s Journal in 1827 so they could tell their own stories about the free Black community in the United States, stories that were truthful, uplifting, and relevant to their community of over 300,000. Russwurm and Cornish were both adamant that the only way for Black people to have their lives valued, would be by telling their own stories. They understood that controlling the narrative of their lives was the pathway to their collective liberation.

It was a bold and innovative move but Russwurm and Cornish certainly weren’t the first nor the last to utilize the written word as a tool for social change, community building, and identity formation.

A Legacy of Literary Liberation

The only tools we need for literary liberation.

From the so-called slave narratives, to the memoirs and autobiographies of the formerly enslaved - books like The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 12 Years a Slave, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - our literature has been deployed as a weapon against injustice, ignorance and apathy. Our books have documented a legacy of Black excellence, intelligence, and resilience. Not to mention, a legacy of superior storytelling skills. It bears mentioning that when it was released in 1853, 12 Years a Slave sold 30,000 copies and became a national bestseller.

That legacy of writing towards our liberation continued throughout America’s history and into present day. From the thought-provoking novels written during the Harlem Renaissance, to the fiery tomes penned during the Civil Rights Movement, to today’s Afro-Futuristic fiction that center Black people triumphantly in the future, Black writers continue to define and redefine the boundaries of our existence by telling our own stories.

And Black people aren’t the only ones.

Words Against White Supremacy

Back in the day, when I was an associate professor of journalism at Temple University, I taught a class called Ethnic Media. In that class, I shared the origin stories of the African-American Press, the Latino Press, the Indigenous Press, and the Asian American Press. While each origin story was unique and relevant to the community in question, they all shared a similar inspiration for launching. Each ethnic group needed a mechanism to solidify and document their existence in a country that refused to acknowledge their humanity.

The power of the written word cannot be overstated as a tool for disrupting the status quo, and for changing the hearts and minds of all those who read the work. If books weren’t so powerful, they wouldn’t have started burning them in 213 B.C. - the date of the earliest official book burning on record - and continue to burn and ban them today. That means, books are still considered dangerous. That means, books can still strike fear in our enemies. That means, books can be a formidable opponent to white supremacy and all of its bastard children; racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism.

BIPOC Writers, You Must Write Yourselves into the World

So, what does this mean for you, my writer friends? Especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or any other writer of color. It means you must write your stories. Fiction and nonfiction. You must write your poetry and your plays. You must write. And then you must take what you’ve written and put it out into the world. It need not be revolutionary in nature. It need not be a call to arms. A romance where two Black people fall in love and get that happily ever after is as powerful and necessary as the book that traces the history of Henrietta Lacks’ lost cancer cells. Our humanity is not defined by our suffering. We are complex peoples with multiple versions of an authentic truth. We need them all. Writers, it is our responsibility to document, celebrate, and imagine ourselves into the world.

So, please, pick up you pen today and write.