Nikole Hannah-Jones — an award winning investigative journalist, a New York Times Magazine staff writer, and the driving force behind The 1619 Project — joins At Liberty host Emerson Sykes (@emersonsjsykes) to discuss the initiative. As you mentioned, we have sold out of copies, people are posting their stories of driving miles and miles and going to several stores just trying to get a copy of the print product. The Birth of American Music. As a history teacher, I am especially grateful to Stephens for pushing against the premises of 1619 by taking them up on their own desires to “start a conversation.”. The 14th Amendment is, as you know, “Equal Protection Before the Law”; it is understanding that, yes, of course, it is important to change quote unquote “hearts and minds” but whether “hearts and minds” change or not, people who are citizens of this country, and I would argue who are noncitizens, who may not even have legal status here, should still be protected equally by the law and treated as equal members of society by the law. And in coming across that date, I just was struck. I very intentionally argue that we are a new people born on these shores, because I think in the reframing of America, I'm also trying to reframe the way that we have been treated and how we have thought about ourselves: that we are never treated as full citizens in this country, that we have always been taught that somehow, our story beginning with our enslavement here is something that we should be ashamed of, that we have to find this connection which is always going to be a vague connection to a continent, or to a region of the second largest continent in the world, because we can't go and look up our specific nations, or our specific languages. Nikole Hannah-Jones hosts this podcast that takes us all the way back to 1619… Only DonorsTrust shares your principles. Bret Stephens won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Bennett identified August 1619 as the month in which the first shipment of African slaves arrived in the Virginia colony. To mark the anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, the New York Times has launched the “1619 Project” with a special edition of the Sunday paper and a slew of other related resources. And, if you're like most Americans, where you learn history from what you're taught in school, you're not, kind of, a history nerd like me, obsessively reading history books, then what you know is what you've been taught. Invitations to periodic publisher chats (held virtually for now) to meet with Matt and give him a piece of your mind, ask your burning questions and hear more about the future plans for Little Village, Bread & Butter Magazine, Witching Hour Festival and our other endeavors. EMERSON SYKES [00:00:04] From the ACLU, this is At Liberty. Learning about this date was “powerful,” Hannah-Jones said, “that’s why it never got taught.”. Copyright © 2020 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. And I think we make a very powerful argument about the ongoing legacy of slavery. A Humorous Look Back at 13 Years as an Army Medic. And I'm not going to blame, you know, entire population because, frankly, a lot of Black Americans know very little about this history, as well. It was not in my public elementary or middle school. With Jay, Stephens talks about this, and much else: the presidential campaign, the Middle East, New York City, and more. There is an assessment of the legacy. I knew what we were trying to do was evocative. Podcast host Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times remains calm and emotionally riveting throughout the “1619” podcast series. It has not let up yet, and I have no idea what's next day. It is important that we understand how and why the world has changed. I think what I've learned, I've been studying African-American history since I took my first Black Studies class in high school. The 1619 Project, published by the New York Times, retells the history of the U.S. by foregrounding the arrival 401 years ago of enslaved Africans to Virginia. But also, it's not a reported news document, right? “I became a journalist not just because I was interested in writing stories, but because I understood how important it was for Black people to be in charge of the narratives that were being written about us … to really show the way that power is wielded against Black communities. Four hundred years ago this month, more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in what was then the British colony of Virginia. This project is just, clearly, the tip of the iceberg. So there are, in the magazine, there are stories about why Americans consume so much sugar. So, I think having that information, in some ways, you could look at this entire project as an argument that makes the case that something is owed. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day. The 1619 Project and the Matter of Black Lives, Designing the Narrative with Taylor Shaw and Jon Key, Intersecting Realities: Health, Race, and the Ongoing Legacies of Slavery and Jim Crow, The Black Liberation Movement and Radical Community Education, Financial Legacies: Slavery and the History of Banking, African American Music: the Sound of Freedom's Journey, Nikole Hannah-Jones in conversation with students, Nikole Hannah-Jones, "Reflecting on the 1619 Project in 2020: The Long Legacy of Slavery and the Current State of Race", A Discussion of the 1619 Project and Anti-Blackness in the Arts, The 1619 Project in 2020: Student Showcase, pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf, pulitzercenter.org/projects/1619-project-pulitzer-center-education-programming. 2 - Due date for The 1619 Project in 2020: Student ShowcaseNov 18 - 1520 and the Slave Trade to the Americas. We have never even been able to live fully as individuals because our membership in this race, that white people made, that we call Black, has meant that no matter what we do personally as individuals, we are lumped in and treated as a group.