Black Evidence A History and a Warning

By: Candis Watts Smith

Published by W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 2026-03-03

From Reconstruction to redemption, civil rights to the Southern strategy, the multiracial protests of 2020 for social justice to the swift elimination of policies etching out a more inclusive, equitable society, Americans regularly experience periods of racial reckoning followed by walloping retrenchment. This pattern is a result of an American pastime: creating and implementing tactics to deny Black truth. Candis Watts Smith explores how Black voices have been prevented from contributing ideas to break these cycles. Distilling four centuries of critical moments in US history, this careful curation of vignettes provides a warning of what happens when Black testimony is subject to exclusion, when Black communities are terrorized, when Black children are transformed into adults, and when Black resistance is pathologized. Black Evidence shows how the ugly legacy of the past continues into our present and prescribes a cure-listen to the veracity of Black voices and amplify it.