REFRAMING HISTORY: THE 1619 PROJECT

Photo taken by Alice Vergueiro, The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Does a fight for equality also mean Iowa’s schools losing funds? Here’s how Iowa’s politics could affect how children are educated on American history.

WORDS BY CALEB LILLQUIST DESIGN BY LILA JOHNSON

Race has always been a topic of polarized American discourse. A project adding to this ongoing discussion is none other than the 1619 Project.

The 1619 Project was created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a native of Waterloo, Iowa. Jones published a series of papers that were adopted by the New York Times and are now being implemented in schools nationwide.

The main purpose of the program is to challenge the narrative of slavery. The project challenges the creation of the U.S., along with other aspects of American slavery.

The main page of the 1619 Project, along with its curriculum, can be found on The New York Times Magazine website. The landing page of the site states: “In August of 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon near Point Comfort, a coastal port in the English colony of Virginia. It carried more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the colonists. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is finally time to tell our story truthfully.”

The New York Times describes the project as one that “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”

Some of these “reframings” include assertions that the U.S. was built by the Founding Fathers to preserve slavery and to further use capitalism to enslave African Americans.

Despite the program’s aim, over the past few years it has come under fire for alleged falsities in the form of accusations from renowned historians.

The Atlantic’s piece, Historians Clash With The 1619 Project Is Not About The Facts, addresses the main criticisms. Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz is noted as being the first to call out the falsities of the project.

A letter was written to the New York Times on the 1619 Project, signed off by James Oakes, Victoria Bynum, Gordon Wood, and James McPherson, who are “all leading scholars in their field,” according to The Atlantic.

“The letter sent to the Times says, ‘We applaud all efforts to address the foundational centrality of slavery and racism to our history,” The Atlantic piece reads.

But it then veers into harsh criticism of the 1619 Project. The letter refers to “matters of verifiable fact” that “cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing’” and says the project reflected “a displacement of historical understanding by ideology,” argues Wilentz and others.

The 1619 curriculum has been adopted in states across the country as a supplemental aid for teaching U.S. history in classrooms.

Here in Iowa, Republicans in the state legislature have pushed a bill that would ban schools from using the 1619 Project in classrooms, withholding school funding for those who adopt it.

Sponsors of House File 222 claim that the award-winning project by the New York Times is “leftwing propaganda” and is “un-American.”

H.F. 222 would cut funding to schools, community colleges, or the state’s three regent universities if the 1619 Project’s curriculum is used in classrooms. The first section of the bill asserts that the 1619 Project “attempts to deny or obfuscate the fundamental principles upon which the United States was founded.”

In its first few months, the bill garnered press coverage from both the Des Moines Register and Iowa’s conservative-leaning paper The Iowa Standard.

According to Iowa’s legislative website, the bill had more than 80 comments from Iowa lobbyists and residents, the majority of whom showed disapproval for the bill.

The author of the bill, Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Orange City, is still adamant in his stance against the 1619 Project.

“The 1619 Project is riddled with errors and has been shredded by historians all over the country,” Wheeler said. “This project seeks to tear down America, not build her up. It seeks to divide, not unify. It distorts truth and does so while pushing a leftist political agenda.”

Regarding the recent criticisms of the bill about slavery, Wheeler responded with, “This bill does not prohibit the teaching of slavery or Jim Crow, and does not change to a single social student standard. It also does not ban the use of the project in another subject area, such as literature. This bill ensures that our history classes will teach facts and truth, not lies and propaganda.”

Iowa Commission on Uniform State Laws co-chair lobbyist and co-chair of the NAACP of Iowa/Nebraska, David S. Walker, voted against the bill because of rising concerns of school choice.

“Academic freedom is a really important issue, it spores into freedom of thought,” Walker said.

Walker expressed concern that Republicans would be able to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach to their students within their classroom. “Racism and Jim Crow and racial disparities have never been taught in our schools in a RACISM AND JIM CROW AND RACIAL DISPARITIES HAVE “ justified manner,” NEVER BEEN TAUGHT Walker said. IN OUR SCHOOLS IN A Walker noted that although he has not JUSTIFIED MANNER read the project’s DAVID S. WALKER, CO-CHAIR LOBBYIST FOR IOWA COMMISSION ON

UNIFORM STATE LAWS

text, discussing the roots of racism and slavery within Iowa schools is nevertheless important to show the “viciousness” of the reality of what happened in American history.

Although the Iowa Legislature passed H.F. 222 through the education subcommittee, the bill failed during funnel week.

Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, commented on the bill, concluding that, “The bill is not moving forward, so any talk about it now is philosophical.”

Hannah-Jones, the project’s author, spoke to Drake University students April 8, 2021 via Zoom. Hannah-Jones was interviewed by Drake’s professor of religion and Director of Crew Scholars, Dr. Jennifer Harvey.

The interview started off with Hannah-Jones talking about her early journalism endeavours where she strived to write the stories of other minorities in her high school newspaper. She also briefly noted being a beat reporter for 20 years where she reported on racial inequalities across the U.S.

Throughout her work, she has always pushed to raise awareness of African American stories because she believed there were never stories being written about people like her.

Hannah-Jones made it a point in her responses throughout the interview that the 1619 Project aims to “bring Black Americans into the middle of American History.”

Regarding the criticisms of her project, she commented how some days she feels ‘very strong’ about her position, where other days she feels ‘very weak.’

Hannah-Jones pointed out that there must be accurate representation to tell the stories of America. She offered a piece of advice to reporters of color with the recent social turmoil and rise of hate crimes nationwide.

“You’re needed,” Hannah-Jones said.