The truth is the light and the light is the truth.

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

In his groundbreaking 1952 book “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison introduces an unnamed African American narrator who relates his story from a basement-dwelling lit with 1,369 light bulbs. This room filled with light represents the man’s choice to see his life more clearly and to seek truth through enlightenment. Although “Invisible Man” was Ellison’s only novel published in his lifetime, more manuscripts were discovered in the award-winning author’s home after he died in 1994. This discovery resulted in the posthumous publication of a second novel, 1999’s “Juneteenth.” Even today, Ellison’s work continues to point us toward finding our truth from a place of quietly defiant illumination.