Telling the Fuller Truth: Race and Reconciliation Initiative at TCU, 2020â€"2025

What if understanding the past could help shape a more just and inclusive future? Telling the Fuller Truth: Race and Reconciliation Initiative at TCU, 2020-2025 invites readers into an honest and compelling journey through the complex history of Texas Christian University’s first 150 years—uncovering stories of race, racism, and resilience.

This powerful volume brings together scholars, students, alumni, and community members to examine TCU’s ties to slavery, the Confederacy, and systemic inequity. Part one offers a bold reexamination of the university’s founding and growth through a racial lens. Part two features deeply personal and thought-provoking essays that reflect on TCU’s Race & Reconciliation Initiative—a five-year academic project aimed at healing and accountability.

Through these collected voices, this book becomes more than a historical reflection—it becomes a tool for transformation. Readers will find insights and strategies for fostering equity in higher education, along with a model for institutional change. Telling the Fuller Truth: Race and Reconciliation Initiative at TCU, 2020-2025  empowers faculty, students, and leaders to confront the hard truths of history and work together toward a future where everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Amiso George, APR, Fellow PRSA, is professor of strategic communication and chair of the Race & Reconciliation Initiative at Texas Christian University. She was a former chair of the Strategic Communication Department. She was a 2020 Fulbright Fellow in Kyrgyzstan, a visiting professor at Swinburne University in Australia, a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, and a consultant for universities in Asia and Africa. She is the coeditor of three books, including Race, Gender and Other Minorities: Readings for Professional Communicators (2012). George teaches diversity (in the media), global communication, and studies the role of culture in risk and crisis communication nationally and internationally.   

Karen Steele, professor of English, previously served as founding dean of the TCU School of Interdisciplinary Studies; special assistant to the provost focusing on justice and inclusion; cochair of TCU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee; chair of the English department; and director of Women & Gender Studies. She is a founding member of TCU’s Race & Reconciliation Initiative. She writes for general audiences, both locally and nationally, about RRI’s research processes and findings, as well as its efforts to spotlight organizations and individuals who shaped TCU to become a more diverse and inclusive campus. 

Jenay F.E. Willis is assistant professor of higher education at the University of Mississippi. A former postdoctoral fellow for TCU’s Race & Reconciliation Initiative, she led efforts to address the necessity of illuminating and centering students’ voices and experiences pertaining to reconciliation in conjunction with faculty, staff, and administrators across TCU and the broader Fort Worth community. She was director of the RRI’s Oral History Project, which offered her the opportunity to be in conversation with individuals and communities from historically marginalized backgrounds who are affiliated with TCU. A native of the Deep South, she centers those experiences of locality in her research and highlights rurality, spatial equity, access, and opportunity in her scholarship.