Politicians are not just speaking… they are performing.

They are trained in something called rhetoric—

the art of persuasion.

Not truth.

Not outcomes.

Not accountability.

Understanding Power: What the Federalist Papers Reveal About How Government Is Supposed to Work

In 1787, the United States faced a major problem.

The country had just won independence from Britain, but the government created under the Articles of Confederation was weak and unstable. The national government had very little authority, states acted almost like separate countries, and leaders feared the new nation could collapse.

To fix this problem, a group of delegates met in Philadelphia and drafted what would become the United States Constitution.

But writing the Constitution was only half the battle.

The document still needed to be approved by the states, and many Americans were deeply skeptical of giving a national government more power.

The Black Wall was introduced to the community this weekend as a new civic accountability system designed to measure whether policies, investments, and political decisions are improving conditions in Black communities.

During the discussion, some elected officials raised concerns about grades they received.

We welcome that discussion.

The Black Wall is not designed to attack individuals.

It is designed to measure outcomes.

Every grade is based on publicly available data including: