The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is “revisionist history”? What critiques of the academy’s traditional approach to Black history have been made?

Teaching Suggestion: The 1619 Project has been critiqued by some as a work of “revisionist history.” An objective approach to the book requires that students understand the revisionist nature of history itself; if their responses reveal gaps in their understanding, you might offer the first resource listed below. Students are likely to have variable prior knowledge of criticisms leveled against traditional conceptions of Black history. You might offer them the second resource listed below to ensure that everyone is prepared with solid background information.

• This article from Humanities—the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities—explains why revision is at the core of the discipline of history.
• This interview from the Harvard Gazette offers a historian’s perspective on the problematic ways in which Black history has been taught.

2. What is the New York Times’s 1619 Project? Why was it created, and what is its central thesis? Why is this project controversial?

Teaching Suggestion: The book The 1619 Project is a companion piece to the New York Times Magazine’s 2016 issue bearing the same name. Understanding this context, as well as some of the controversy that surrounds this project, will enrich students’ understanding of the book. If it is appropriate to your classroom, you might extend this conversation by asking students whether they think discomfort over the centering of the Black American experience has anything to do with the controversy surrounding the project, or whether they believe the criticism is solely motivated by academic concerns.

• This site, hosted by The New York Times’s 1619 Project, uses quotes, essays, and photo essays to introduce The New York Times Magazine issue that would eventually spawn Hannah-Jones’s The 1619 Project.
• This open letter from the National Association of Scholars to the Pulitzer Prize Board calls for the Pulitzer given to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her lead essay in the 1619 Project’s original issue to be rescinded.
• This article offers a response to the controversy from The New York Times Magazine.

Short Activity

The book you are about to read is an extension of the 2016 New York Times Magazine issue called The 1619 Project. Read the section of this issue that you are assigned and be prepared to report back on the following:

• What topics and key ideas were covered in this section?
• Based on this section of the magazine, what do you expect will be true about the book you are about to read?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can be completed by small groups in larger classes and by partners or individuals in smaller classes. It is not necessary for students to cover the entire issue in order to get a sense of its contents and ideas; you can assign section lengths appropriate to the time available and to your students’ abilities without being concerned about complete coverage. If students do not have access to the internet, you might print out key sections of the issue in advance.

Differentiation Suggestion: As some of this material is heavily visual, you may want to consider which sections are appropriate to assign to students with limited vision.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Think of the various aspects of your own identity: your ethnic background, sex and gender, race, socioeconomic class, etc. How accurately and fully are these groups’ histories generally represented? What relationship does your answer have to historical power structures? How might this impact your reading of The 1619 Project?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt invites students to consider both how the typical portrayal of history impacts them personally and how their own readings of history might be impacted. Students are likely to respond in more depth and with more honesty in writing, rather than through discussion; if a discussion of this prompt is appropriate for your classroom, you may wish to ask for written responses first and for discussion as a follow-up.