In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa.
Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: it is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
The essays in The 1619 Project show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.
Howard University and Spotify have launched a student-led project inspired by The 1619 Project. The collaboration aims to deepen historical understanding and highlight the impact of slavery. The initiative also includes scholarships and resources for HBCU students to explore audio storytelling.
The course that Nikole Hannah-Jones teaches at Howard University is titled after her award-winning book, The 1619 Project. Students who took the course and studied the material wrote essays that were then were developed into the student-led podcast.
“1619: The College Edition” unpacks the flair of fashion to the beautiful spectrum of melanin, and even the critical and urgent discussions about the safety of Black queer lives. It’s a mix of history, culture, and contemporary…
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