Who actually coined the phrase "speaking truth to power"?

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Answer by RonLad
Submitted on 1/17/2007
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Speak Truth to Power, taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends, suggests the effort that is made to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith, as this faith is understood by those who prepared this study. We speak to power in three senses: To those who hold high places in our national life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war or peace. To the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority. To the idea of Power itself, and its impact on Twentieth Century life. Our truth is an ancient one: that love endures and overcomes; that hatred destroys; that what is obtained by love is retained, but what is obtained by hatred proves a burden. This truth, fundamental to the position which rejects reliance on the method of war, is ultimately a religious perception, a belief that stands outside of history.

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Question by Peter
Submitted on 10/30/2003
Related FAQ: soc.religion.quaker Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
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Who actually coined the phrase "speaking truth to power"?

Answer by jay
Submitted on 4/19/2004
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Anita Hill, I believe

Answer by LeoTheJew
Submitted on 11/16/2004
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Actually, the phrase comes from Elie Wiesel...

Answer by Jeff Licquia
Submitted on 12/29/2004
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A reference to "speaking truth to power" that predates Anita Hill: http://www.coopcomm.org/gkh_essay02.htm

Answer by matthew horan
Submitted on 1/6/2005
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The phrase was a title to a book written in 1979 by Adam Wildavski. Where he got it, I do not know, but it sounds like something out of the Consciousness Raising Movement of the earlier 70's.

Answer by Cathy
Submitted on 5/31/2005
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This phrase is probably quite old. The underground paper called the Free Press that started publishing after the Kent State shootings in 1970 uses the phrase as its subtitle. Manning Marable used the phrase for one of his books, as did Anita Hill. I thought it might be from the Bible, but I couldn't find any passages that appeared to be a variant of the phrase.

Answer by nk1007
Submitted on 10/30/2005
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Aaron Wildavsky

Answer by Ralph
Submitted on 1/15/2006
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A position paper by the Quakers (Society of Friends) published in 1955 was called "Speak Truth to Power." See http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/living_the_truth.htm for details

Answer by Searcher
Submitted on 2/19/2006
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It was a charge given to 18th century "Friends" or Quakers concerning the sect's responsibility to question the states reasoning based on facts.

Answer by bodhi
Submitted on 2/22/2006
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Bayard Rustin in 1942. In August of that year the Friends monthly meeting in Manhattan was considering the possibility of providing hospitality to servicemen � USO style, and Ruskin wrote the following: �The primary social function of a religious society is to speak the truth to power.� Perhaps his one most important written contribution to peace was in 1954 when he and a few other Quakers came together to write �Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence.� Source: http://wildapples.typepad.com/harvest/2006/01/speak_truth_to_.html

Answer by cy
Submitted on 5/1/2006
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It is not Anita Hill. It's origins are from a Quaker pamphlet, writtin in the 1950's.

Answer by abunai
Submitted on 5/12/2006
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It's a Quaker principle from the 18th century. The Quakers were big on non-violent resistance.

Answer by Ian Bicking
Submitted on 5/19/2006
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It's an old term. This page: http://www.quaker.org/sttp.html Says: Our title, "Speak Truth to Power", taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends It might precede that, but at least that seems to be the philosophical root of the term in its current use.

Answer by jh6p
Submitted on 5/25/2006
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I don't know who said it first, but the Quakers published a document by that name on March 2, 1955, one year before Anita Hill was born.

Answer by deeztreez
Submitted on 6/30/2006
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Manning Marable

Answer by kwt
Submitted on 12/12/2006
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Aaron Wildavsky. (1979). Speaking truth to power: The art and craft of policy analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

Answer by Jonathan Anderson
Submitted on 3/2/2007
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This has a very long history coming out of early Quaker traditions. However, there was also a 1979 political science book by Aaron Wildavsky by that name.

Answer by David Armor
Submitted on 7/18/2007
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It's a Quaker phrase, coined in the 1950s. Speaking Truth to Power reflects the Friends' belief that even in the face of overwhelming power, one ought still to speak the truth, unfearful of reprisal. People like Anita Hill, who titled her autobiographical report of her sex scandals "Speaking Truth to Power", show very little knowledge of the phrase or its history, but use it because it sounds good and has a lot of positive charge.

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Answer by Charlie
Submitted on 7/5/2006
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From an American Friends Service Committee document, prepared in 1955 by a committee of 13 people and subtitled "A Quaker Study of International Conflict." A portion of which says, "Our title, Speak Truth to Power, taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends, suggests the effort that is made to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith."

Answer by oldkr
Submitted on 7/29/2006
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The phrase "speaking truth to power" goes back to 1955, when the American Friends Service Committee published Speak Truth to Power, a pamphlet ii at proposed a new approach to the Cold War. Its title, which came to Friend Milton Mayer toward the end of the week in summer 1954 when the composing committee finished work on the document, has become almost a cliche

Answer by Wm. Swafford
Submitted on 8/2/2006
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It is much, much older than Anita Hill. It was taken from a charge given to Eighteenth Century Friends, and suggests the effort that is made to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith.

Answer by Libby
Submitted on 9/30/2006
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The Quakers coined the phrase, first on the eighteenth century, then in a popular pamphlet published in 1955.

Answer by ghassan karam
Submitted on 10/29/2006
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To Speak truth to Power is the title of a Quakers pamphlet about the cold war.It was published in 1954.

Answer by Mike
Submitted on 11/8/2006
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http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/living_the_truth.htm

Answer by marion
Submitted on 11/9/2006
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In 1955 by the American Friends Service Committee in a pamphlet about the cold war. It was based on the writings of Quakers over the last 300 years.

Answer by Arjun Poudel
Submitted on 11/10/2006
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Edward Said

Answer by sandra
Submitted on 11/26/2006
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The Quakers.

Answer by ed
Submitted on 12/5/2006
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This phrase has been around quakerism at least since the 1950s. Anita Hill used it in her book.

Answer by angi
Submitted on 2/2/2007
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The phrase "speaking truth to power" goes back to 1955, when the American Friends Service Committee published Speak Truth to Power, a pamphlet ii at proposed a new approach to the Cold War.

Answer by Dylan
Submitted on 3/18/2007
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The Quakers did, actually.

Answer by me
Submitted on 6/19/2007
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WRONG! It was the title of an American "Friends" (or Quakers) pamphlet on pacifism written in the 50's.

Answer by Me Again
Submitted on 6/19/2007
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The pamphlet was a call to peace and talked about the Friends response in Europe to the rise of Nazism under Hitler.