The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-18

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Slavery’s Pervasive Impact on American Institutions

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to slavery, physical and sexual abuse, murder, and anti-Black racism.

The title of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story comes from an experience by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who first read the date in a book describing the arrival of a ship called the White Lion to American shores, carrying enslaved Africans. Hannah-Jones was struck by this date, because it predated the signing of the Declaration of Independence, widely regarded as the birth of the United States. This date—1619—presented Hannah-Jones with a new understanding of American history: that slavery in America predated the country’s birth and is, therefore, interwoven into the fiber of its identity. Each essay in the book connects historical events and figures with contemporary issues, revealing how modern life is informed and shaped by slavery’s pervasive impact.

The authors outline numerous ways in which slavery connects to historical events and contemporary issues. For example, in Chapter 12, Villarosa explains that America is the only wealthy country in the world that does not offer universal healthcare. The reason for this is rooted in American slavery. After the Civil War, the National Medical Association, an advocacy group consisting of Black doctors, began supporting a universal healthcare system that would benefit all citizens. Additionally, Interlandi explains in Chapter 15 that the exclusion of Black doctors from the American Medical Association and the racism born out of American slavery meant that Black medical practitioners were repeatedly ignored. Chapter 16 reveals that even traffic is a result of racism and slavery: After the war, white people sought to stay separated from Black communities; problems with infrastructure and transportation thus stem from a repeated effort by white supremacists to maintain segregation.

According to the book’s authors, white fear guided many of these decisions: fear of Black citizens taking jobs and homes, fear based on racist mythologies, and fear of loss of power. Even after the Civil War, the control of Black people that was enacted throughout slavery by white enslavers persisted, merely transformed into a different form of governance:

A new politics of fear and anger emerged and gave rise to the era of mass incarceration. Richard Nixon’s war on drugs, mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes laws, children tried as adults, ‘broken windows’ policing—these policies were not as expressly racialized as the Black Codes, but their implementation involved many of the same features (281).

One cannot separate elements of American history from their interconnected relationship with slavery. As Hannah-Jones discovered, slavery formed the foundation upon which all American culture and policies were built. In the book, she argues that understanding and deconstruction how slavery informs all aspects of American life is therefore key to securing the rights of all both now and in the future.

Black Resistance as a Persistent Force Against Racial Injustice

Throughout history, enactments of power have always been met with strong enactments of resistance. A key theme of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is the incredible efforts of Black Americans in fighting against racial injustice. In Chapter 17, Kendi challenges the mythology that America has made continued progress toward justice. He proposes that this ideology allows racism to continue to enact injustice by building complacency. Kendi argues that continued effort is needed: “The arc of the moral universe is indeed long, and as Obama observed, it doesn’t bend on its own” (439). The book emphasizes modern issues of racial injustice and the necessity for continuing to work toward equality. By shedding light on the individual work of Black Americans who worked tirelessly to obtain freedom and civil rights for others, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story outlines a roadmap for fighting white supremacy.

While each essay in the work highlights the many racial injustices perpetuated by American slavery, they also draw attention to the acts of resistance by Black Americans. The names and stories of Black resistance are numerous, many of which are highlighted in the vignettes included before and after each chapter. Stories of planned uprisings, successful and unsuccessful, and pockets of Black communities shaping their own culture fill the text. For instance, an enslaved Congolese man named Jemmy led the Stono Rebellion with the intention of building a community in Florida where enslaved laborers could escape. In 1791, a Black philosopher and mathematician from Baltimore named Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, challenging the Three-Fifths Compromise. Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat on a bus, and Harriett Tubman aided the escape of approximately 70 enslaved Africans. Frederick Douglass emboldened the abolitionist movement, and Black business owners in Tulsa, Oklahoma, built a blossoming district known as Black Wall Street.

However, both Kendi and Hannah-Jones emphasize that each of these acts of resistance was met with counter-resistance by white supremacists. This, Hannah-Jones argues, is the true narrative of American history. White people seek to suppress the freedoms of Black people and other marginalized groups. Black people organize and push back, further perfecting democracy and seeking social justice for all. In response, white people challenge and diminish their efforts or take credit, rendering the voices of Black Americans silent. In Chapter 18, therefore, Hannah-Jones urges readers to embrace the reality of American history and let it inform and incite further activism.

The Role of Black Americans in Shaping the National Identity

Hannah-Jones shares that her father always flew his American flag with pride. At first, Hannah-Jones could not understand why he would feel such a devotion to a country that had repeatedly failed him. As a young man, Hannah-Jones’s father lived in a county in Mississippi where more Black people were lynched than any other country in the state. After serving in the army, he performed hard labor for the rest of his life and struggled financially. Yet, he always displayed the flag carefully, replacing it as soon as it became slightly worn.

Hannah-Jones realized later in life that her father’s pride in the American flag was a testament to his understanding about his role in American identity: “He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest and most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would not exist without us” (9). While the text explores a history of racial injustice and white supremacy, it also explores the ways in which Black Americans shaped the spirit and identity of the nation.

The United States is often associated with principles like freedom and justice, but the authors in The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story argue that the only connection the country has with these traits is the work of activists who fought hard to make small strides. By fighting in the American Revolution and the Civil War, Black people helped to shape the country’s ideals and future. As white supremacists justified slavery and racial discrimination following the Civil War, Black citizens formed advocacy groups, engaged in peaceful protests, and developed systems that would eventually serve to benefit white Americans too.

One of the greatest examples of Black contributions to American identity is found in Chapter 8. Jones shows how Colored Conventions in the American North identified and refined the concept of a natural-born citizen. Through their efforts, they secured citizenship for any person born in the United States, a security that has defined America’s identity as a cultural melting pot and has been repeatedly challenged by conservative groups who seek to restrict immigration and citizenship.

According to the book’s authors, Black citizens also shaped the country’s identity in other ways. In Chapter 14, Wesley Morris exposes how Black artists and musicians changed the course of American culture and arts. Jazz music and the intellectual and creative works that emerged from the Harlem Renaissance defined the American identity of improvisation, innovation, and style. Although American history is so often told through a colonial lens—one that seeks to diminish and eliminate Black voices from the historical record—the fabric of the American identity is woven by the efforts of Black citizens.