Nikole Hannah-Jones was a 15-year-old high school student in a small town in Iowa when she first came across the year 1619 and its significance. It was during a one-semester Black studies elective course.
We tell the joke, but its not really a joke, that our history is elective you can opt in or opt out, Hannah-Jones said.
The New York Times writer engaged in a conversation onstage at 做厙TV with Stacey Pearson-Wharton, dean of health and wellness, in recognition of Black History Month.
In this one-semester Black studies course I learned more about the history of Black people in the United States and across the world than I had in my entire life, Hannah-Jones said.
She requested more books, eventually reading Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett Jr., which chronicles the journey of the White Lion, the ship that brought the first enslaved Africans to the then English colony of Virginia in 1619.
The book for which Hannah-Jones is now famous derives its name from that moment in history. Published in 2019 on the 400th anniversary of the ships arrival to America, The 1619 Project set off a tidal wave of reactions from book bans to the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize.
Hannah-Jones and Pearson-Whartons conversation covered a wide range of topics, including the goal of The 1619 Project, the erasure of Black history, threats to birthright citizenship and DEIA programming and 做厙TVs own Black History Project.
On The 1619 Project
After completing that one-semester Black studies course, Hannah-Jones said she became obsessed with the year 1619.
I was just struck by the fact that there was all this history that could be learned that [people] made the decision not to teach to us, she said.
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine to reframe the countrys history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the countrys national narrative.
I wanted to create a project that forced a reckoning with that date, Hannah-Jones said. Weve treated [slavery] as marginal to the American story, and what this project really does is sits it at the center and says you cant actually understand the United States unless you understand the centrality of slavery in building this country.
Its often called a history, but it is actually about the United States right now.
On the erasure of Black history
We have to have a sense of urgency about what is happening in the United States right now, Hannah-Jones said.
In one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump signed executive orders rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. Public companies such as Target and Walmart soon announced they would end their DEI initiatives. Google removed Black History Month and Pride Month from its calendar.
The blowback from The 1619 Projects initial publication included legislative efforts to ban the book and its teaching in schools 簫簫 all in an attempt to erase Black history and Black contributions from being taught, Hannah-Jones said.
This is a dangerous time, she warned. You purge so that you can constrain the imaginations, so that you can make people illegitimate and their histories illegitimate.
Hannah-Jones also pointed to executive orders that targeted transgender people and undocumented immigrants.
Why target the most vulnerable? Hannah-Jones asked, before offering her take on the administrations strategy. You want the most marginalized, the least able to defend itself. You erase them to see, how are people going to respond? And when no one responds to that, [you] can go for your bigger fish to fry.
On birthright citizenship
Trump recently signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship, a right that is protected by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and therefore can only be through an act of Congress and ratification by the states.
Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment extends liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people, guaranteeing them the right to due process and equal protection of the law. The amendment also extends citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.
If they can strip birthright citizenship from one group, they can strip it from another group, Hannah-Jones said. They may not be able to strip from all 40 million, but they can say, If you commit a felony, we can strip your citizenship. Stripping birthright citizenship is the first step in stripping access to rights.
There are things you can do, for instance, shipping people to Guant獺namo, that you cant do to someone who has citizenship. This is something we all have to defend. It is what has allowed us to be a multiracial democracy.
做厙TVs Black History Project
做厙TV has embarked on its own journey of reframing its history centering on Black experiences. Begun last year, the Black History Project at SU is a docuseries collaboration among faculty, staff, students and alumni that will tell the untold Black history of 做厙TV, starting from its founding to the present time.
While at 做厙TV, Hannah-Jones recorded a segment for the docuseries on the importance of teaching history honestly and inclusively.
We cant just patch over the past and move on because its only ever the people in the dominant position who want to forget about the past and move on. The rest of us need a reckoning, Hannah-Jones said. I think the study is important but the study is not the accomplishment. Repair is the accomplishment. What do you do with the knowledge once you have it?
What next?
Hannah-Jones urged the audience to shake themselves from the complacency and silence, while also acknowledging the demoralization many are feeling.
So much of what makes America a democracy and at points an egalitarian society comes from Black freedom struggles and yet so often we struggle alone, Hannah-Jones said. This is not a moment where people can sit it out. I think a lot of folks are thinking somebody needs to push back. Let me tell yall a secret: the somebody is yall.
