Reshaping National Memory and the 1619 Project

Posted by The Pulitzer Center on July 7, 2020

This Independence Day weekend arrives in the midst of uprisings against anti-Black racism, during which many people are reckoning with the history, identity, and potential futures of the United States.

Nikole Hannah-Jones calls The 1619 Project an endeavor to “fundamentally reshape the way that we see the American story.” In her introductory essay, she writes, “[T]he year 1619 is as foundational to the American story as 1776…black Americans, as much as those men cast in alabaster in the nation’s capital, are this nation’s true ‘founding fathers.’”

In a new video resource for The 1619 Project produced by MediaStorm, Hannah-Jones discusses her motivations for taking on the project, its impacts, and her hopes for how it might continue to shape dialogues and narratives—in the classroom, and beyond. This lesson offers reflection questions to guide an analysis of the video, and a starting point to dig more deeply into the full 1619 Project curriculum.

View the lesson plan: https://pulitzercenter.org/builder/lesson/analyze-and-discuss-1619-project-video-introduction-27998?utm_source=email&utm_medium=educationnewsletter&utm_campaign=7012020

Full 1619 Project curriculum: https://pulitzercenter.org/lesson-plan-grouping/1619-project-curriculum?utm_source=email&utm_medium=educationnewsletter&utm_campaign=7012020