The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
THEMES:
Racism, Black, Slavery
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.
This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life (Bookshop).
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
Audiobook? Yes
Age Range: 18+
Read Time: 10 hours, 21 minutes (at 300 WPM)
ISBN-13: 9780593230572
ABOUT THE CREATOR
James Estrin, New York Times via author website.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine, and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. In 2017, she received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, known as the Genius Grant, for her work on educational inequality. She has also won a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards, three National Magazine Awards, and the 2018 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism from Columbia University. In 2016, Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a training and mentorship organization geared toward increasing the number of investigative reporters of color. Hannah-Jones is the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she has founded the Center for Journalism and Democracy. In 2021, she was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the “The 1619 Project,” staff writer, The New York Times Magazine and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, Howard University, joins Meet the Press to discuss the debates and backlash over how to teach race and history (December 2021, NBC News)
Nikole Hannah-Jones is interviewed on Democracy Now! about the right-wing attack on banned books (November 2021, Democracy Now)
IN THE NEWS
Lawmakers Push to Ban ‘1619 Project’ From Schools (EdWeek)
Why Republican efforts to ban the 1619 Project from classrooms are so misguided (Washington Post)
It’s Banned Books Week in America. In some places, the ‘1619 Project’ is being targeted (Poynter)