What if a journalist engaged writers and historians, to develop a book that focuses on the impact of slavery and its aftermath on US history?
The NYT’s Nikole Hannah-Jones is that journalist, and the 1619 project is that history. It started out as a special issue of the New York Times magazine, but it’s grown and developed.
I need to be honest, this is not easy reading. The US history we got in school has been, to put it as kindly as possible, “cleaned up.” To see an unvarnished history is jarring, unnerving. As the saying goes, if history doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you aren’t reading history.
Of course, there are people who prefer the cleaned-up version of US history. They want to keep kids from learning about Jim Crow, redlining, lynching, racial massacres, hiring differentials, or racial bias in law enforcement. You know who they are.
The 1619 project is important. Set aside time, get it, read it.
NOTES:
- And when you get done reading it, read 12 years a slave by Solomon Northup, Stamped from the beginning, by Ibram X Kendii, and A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
- Vox: The New York Times 1619 Project is reshaping the conversation on slavery. Conservatives hate it.
- The Atlantic: Nikole Hannah-Jones reflects on How to be an honest historian
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