1619 Project
Read, listen. It is well worth the 6 hours of audio of the podcast. And the 1619 Project magazine issue published August 2019 on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship to dock in what is now the United States, has additional literature and sources. Rare is the work of nonfiction that so alters your way of looking a the world that all you can do is share it, act upon it. In the case of 1619, I was moved to figure out how to incorporate Nikole Hannah-Jones’ work into the curriculum in California.
Initially we discussed this idea with caution and a little trepidation that we would be slammed for having a political agenda. It was the middle of February when we finally posted the polite, well-worded letter to our superintendent. One month later schools were, incredibly, shuttered, we were sheltering in place, reality upturned. It seemed like a good time to hush about a follow-up as the district was struggling to figure out how to get tech to 18,000 students. Two more months and George Floyd was killed under the foot of a police officer and the largest protest movement in history emerged onto the empty streets like a broken hive. Suddenly, this was the best time to demand a follow-up. The rest is not “history” but the content of this whole website, so I won’t delve into the details here as this post is meant to encourage you to set aside the time to listen to the project that started this all.
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