1619 Slavery

The deep chasm in American political culture continues to open, and to generate irreconcilable positions on everything from climate change to Covid-19 to critical race theory. The intensity of this divide is driven largely by the zeal of the right and its appetite to remake the polity in its image,…

In June, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill that prohibits “race scapegoating” and “race stereotyping” in K-12 education, as well as teaching “specific concepts” such as “the United States of America and the state of Iowa are fundamentally or systemically racist.” The law, which targets critical race theory without…

Chapel Hill, N.C. Trustees at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill approved tenure Wednesday for Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, capping weeks of tension that began when a board member halted the process over questions about her teaching credentials. The board voted 9-4 to accept the…

UNC-Chapel Hill’s board on Wednesday voted to approve tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. The board voted in a 9-4 decision, in favor of tenure after weeks of controversy over Hannah-Jones’ job protections. She was originally hired in April and intended to start her new role at UNC in July. Last…

In the early 2000s, before the levees broke in New Orleans, it was still possible to be a provincial New Englander and drive in a shiny rental car down Interstate 45 toward Galveston, Texas, without feeling anything except a profound appreciation for the beauty glistening off the West Bay in…

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a renowned journalist, recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Barely a month ago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced to much fanfare that she had been appointed to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism…

NEW YORK — Hulu will produce a documentary series based on “ The 1619 Project,” stories in The New York Times that examined the legacy of slavery in America dating from the arrival of the first slave ship from Africa. NEW YORK — Hulu will produce a documentary series based…

“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us … history is literally present in all that we do.”—James Baldwin, 1965 In the weeks since the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a lie-emboldened mob of Trump-branded insurrectionists, many political leaders and mainstream pundits…

The long-standing idea of paying reparations to Black Americans for the costs of slavery, segregation, and other racist policies has lately gotten a boost. President Joe Biden has endorsed a commission to study the subject, and on February 17 the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on H.R. 40, which would…

On Monday, two days before Donald Trump was set to exit the presidency, the White House released the names of 244 individuals who would be honored for their contributions to American society in a National Statue Garden. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln would be there, as would Martin Luther King…