The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

“But while history is what happened, it is also, just as important, how we think about what happened and what we unearth and choose to remember about what happened.”

This statement is reflected throughout the work as the authors connect contemporary issues and events with historical points of reference. Rather than focusing merely on the facts, Hannah-Jones and the other authors in the text seek answers to the motivations and ideologies of American citizens in addition to their actions.

“No one cherishes freedom more than those who have not had it. And to this day, Black Americans, more than any other group, embrace the democratic ideals of a common good.”

Hannah-Jones argues that it is time to pay attention to The Role of Black Americans in Shaping the National Identity. While facing profound discrimination and violence, Black Americans developed and fought for an ideology of freedom that has become a vital part of the understanding of what it means to be an American.

“Through these laws, colonial landowners constructed race as a system of power in which anyone categorized as Black could be dominated by anyone categorized as white.”

Roberts argues that colonists created a foundation of racism that continues to infect the American identity. By asserting that any child born to an enslaved person is also enslaved, colonists ensured the financial viability of slavery and the framework for its expansion. This decision also served as a catalyst for an ongoing battle between those who adhere to racist ideologies about citizenship, labor, and economic wealth and those who advocate for equality.

“In these moments, slave traders were conditioning Africans for plantation slavery. But the captives were also forming a new identity, a diasporic Blackness, forged out of their collective fate, as they found strength in one another.”

This passage, centered on the journey of captive Africans to America, explains that—prior to being forced into slavery—these individuals had personal identities tied to their regions of origin. They had diverse languages and experiences, but their bondage and suffering at the hands of white enslavers created a need for a larger collective identity. Uprisings and rebellions, part of the history of Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice, are testaments to cooperative dissent.

“The glaring double standard reflects a centuries-old pattern in which Black strivings for liberation have been demonized, criminalized, and subjected to persecution, while white people’s demands for liberty are deemed rational, legitimate, and largely unthreatening.”

The authors of this chapter juxtapose a Black Lives Matter protest, during which the federal government deployed thousands of soldiers to defend public property from peaceful protesters, with the January 6 Capitol riots. During the latter, the National Guard was not deployed until after rioters had turned violent. These two events highlight the disparate approaches to protesting by white and Black citizens.

“Rather than focus on ‘root causes’ of crime and violence, and the systems and structures that create and maintain inequality, politicians across the political spectrum capitulated to a narrative that segregationists had been sealing decades earlier—and that enslavers had embraced before them: namely, that Black people were lazy, had to be forced to work, were inherently or culturally criminal.”

Modern policies designed to surveil and control Black populations represent one instance of Slavery’s Pervasive Impact on American Institutions. The authors argue that militarized police forces, the war on drugs, and high incarceration rates are indicative of a dynamic with roots in enslavement: Rather than pursuing equality through social justice and socialist policies, people in power seek to control and oppress Black people by treating them like innate criminals.

“Slavery shaped our political institutions and founding documents, our laws governing private property and financial regulation, our management techniques and accounting systems, and our economic systems and labor unions.”

This chapter, centered on the connection between capitalism and slavery, reveals Slavery’s Pervasive Impact on American Institutions. The author suggests that the political and labor systems of the country were forged by an interest to protect and preserve slavery and wealth.

“America’s present-day tax system, however, is regressive and insipid in part because it was born out of political compromise steered by debates over slavery.”

The tax system represents one of the ways in which slavery shaped America’s institutions. Because white Southern enslavers worried that the Great Compromise would require them to pay more property tax, the federal government established a system that would continue to protect interests of the wealthy.

“But plantations didn’t just produce goods; they produced ideas, too.”

Bouie explains that two ideologies emerged from plantations: The first is the focus on democracy and freedom, shaped by Black enslaved laborers, that helped to form the basic foundation of American national identity, and the second is the justification of a way of life by white enslavers that is predicated upon the trafficking of human bodies. Bouie argues that the latter is responsible for shaping contemporary politics.

“The larger implication is clear enough: majority made up of liberals and nonwhite isn’t a real majority.”

Here, Bouie relates historical American politics to the present day. According to Bouie, President Donald Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen by illegal voting reflects an ideology that divides American citizens into two categories: legitimate and illegitimate. Bouie asserts that white citizens represent the “legitimate” category in the eyes of Trump and other conservatives.

“For Black Americans, full citizenship would not come by ballot. Nor would it come by way of white lawmakers’ benevolence. Instead, the only route to national belonging was through organizing and advocacy.”

As Jones explores the history of citizenship in the United States, she draws attention to Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice. The strides made in equality and citizenship were the hard-fought outcome of the efforts of Black activists, who worked tirelessly to dismantle racist institutional structures. In fact, the concept of natural-born citizens came from discussions at the 1843 Colored Convention.

“White people continue to use self-defense laws to protect themselves from perceived harm from African Americans; Black people often cannot use self-defense to protect themselves from actual harm by white people. The results have been devastating.”

In this passage, Anderson juxtaposes how self-defense has been used by white people to justify acts of violence against Black citizens with examples of true self-defense from Black citizens who have been villainized. Anderson connects contemporary examples to early examples of white enslavers’ attempts to deny weapons to Black Americans out of fear of uprising. While white mobs could act with impunity following Emancipation, Black citizens were arrested for any offense and often for no reason at all.

“This was not freedom given; this was freedom earned.”

Anderson draws attention to the 179,000 Black men who served in the Union army and the importance of Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice. Throughout history, Black people have fought for their freedoms and the protection of their civil rights.

“American slavery evolved into a perverse regime that denied the humanity of Black people while criminalizing their actions. Bondage itself was only one part of the system; the myth of racial difference and a belief in white supremacy were another.”

Chapter 10 shows the connecting thread between slavery and the modern incarceration system. Stevenson argues that the mythologies that emerged about white supremacy during slavery helped to maintain the dominating forces of punishment in the lives of Black citizens. Contemporary incarceration, which disproportionately affects Black people and saddles them with harsher sentences than white people, is another aspect of Slavery’s Pervasive Impact on American Institutions.

“The whistle of an unnatural wind / gave word there would be a lynching.”

This poem, which focuses on the story of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Massacre, recalls one of the accusations made against 14-year-old Emmett Till—that he had the audacity to whistle at a white woman. By opening the poem with a whistle, the speaker connects two acts of violence.

“More than sixty thousand Black people had deposited more than $3 million in the savings bank, but its all-white trustees used that money.”

Although slavery had ended, the ideologies of white supremacy persisted, impacting the ability of Black citizens to build a new life. White trustees mishandled a federal bank that was part of the promise of Reconstruction. When the bank failed just a few years after its inception, Black citizens who put money in the bank lost everything.

“A Negro voice spoke through a boy’s open mouth. / A Negro voice survived through a boy’s lynched neck.”

Contemporary poet A. Van Jordan calls on the rhythmic traditions of the Harlem Renaissance in his poem “The New Negro.” His poem illuminates the impact of Black voices—even as they struggled to be heard in a system that repeatedly oppressed and violated them—on American culture.

“The traditions arising out of Black nineteenth-century churches and leadership included social uplift, liberation, pragmatism, and Black nationalism.”

Black churches emerged as another example of Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice. Butler highlights the role of Black churches in supporting, encouraging, and safeguarding activism.

“The fact that the label specialized in love songs was crucial to its impact. Love was the void at the center of the country. Laws, policies, and codes both stated and implied that Black people were unsuitable for loving, that they were unsuitable for life.”

Chapter 13 showcases The Role of Black Americans in Shaping the National Identity through music. Motown Records, which produced primarily love songs, had a major impact on the direction of American music and the highlighting of Black voices. This passage explains that the record company’s focus on love songs was its own form of resistance against an ideology that Black people were undeserving of love.

“The NMA delivered a countermessage of its own: healthcare was a basic human right, inextricably bound to racial equality.”

In the book, the National Medical Association represents one example of Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice. Recognizing that they would not be acknowledged by the American Medical Association and that the federal government would not take steps to secure the health and safety of Black citizens, the NMA fought diligently to implement programs like Medicare and Medicaid and to support the medical needs of Black families.

“The campaign to keep African Americans ‘in their place’ socially and politically manifested itself in an effort to keep them quite literally in one place or another.”

This chapter highlights segregationist practices that found their roots in the Civil War. After the war, enslavers no longer had an incentive to stay close to Black people. Concepts like segregationist neighborhoods and colonization were ways for white people to maintain a mythology of white supremacy and separation.

“But when seen as the defining narrative of American history, this vision of our past as a march of racial progress is a historical, mythical and incomplete.”

Kendi argues that a narrative that perpetuates the idea that America is—regardless of setbacks—headed toward a future of social justice is a false one. He suggests that this mythology creates space for white people to enact further injustices against marginalized groups. Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice must be part of a continued, diligent effort to fight for equality.

“White people—embodied in the enslaver—enslaved Black people. And then white people—embodied in Lincoln—freed Black people. In the end, it was white people who righted the wrong of slavery. This formulation stemmed not from an accurate reading of events but from the myth of racial progress.”

Kendi furthers his argument by proposing that the mythology of progress ensures that white people escape judgment for their actions. By promoting the idea of continued advancement, white people position themselves as heroes, ignoring their own contributions to racial injustice and the persistent efforts of Black activists to wrestle freedom from the hands of white supremacists.