2024 Princeton Prize in Race Relations Winner | South Florida Regional “Certificate of Accomplishment” Recipient

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"Jamora, I congratulate you on your excellent documentary on the first "Teach the Truth" tour. I have seen no other film that captures my work so effectively and I have been followed on the tour by MSNBC, CNN, and a host of other filmmakers. Your film goes to the very heart of the purpose and success of the tour. To have this quality of work come from a high school student is incredible."

- Dr. Marvin Dunn 

During January 7-8, 2023, I participated in the inaugural “Teach The Truth" tour with Dr. Marvin Dunn, Florida International University Professor Emeritus and renowned Black Historian.

My family and I were part of a group of about 50 individuals from South Florida - community leaders, family members, and high school students - who loaded onto a charter bus for the historic experience.

Organized by The Miami Center for Racial Justice, the group’s itinerary included visiting various sites in north Florida during the two-day trip and learning about the numerous acts of racial terror - the bombing of Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore, the Newberry Lynchings of 1916, the Rosewood Massacre and others - committed against Blacks throughout the state’s history.

The tour concluded with a 100th-year anniversary ceremony in remembrance of the victims of the Rosewood Massacre, which was held on the five-acre property of Dr. Dunn - the only Black person who currently owns land in Rosewood, Florida.

Dr. Dunn describes the “Teach the Truth” tour as a direct response to the attempt by politicians in Florida to legislate a ban on the teaching of Black History to public school students throughout the state.

This documentary is my debut film and I produced it to help ensure that the racial terror experienced by Black Floridians throughout the state's history is not forgotten or erased.

Learning from these horrific events is important if we are to build better race relations for future generations, because in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”

In documenting the experiences of the inaugural "Teach the Truth" group, I personally captured 2000+ pictures and recorded 10+ hours of video footage during the two-day tour, as well as conducted a post-event interview with Dr. Dunn, and then spent several months editing the footage to produce the finished 12-minute film.