Penn Valley Common Read- The 1619 Project

From the civil war to the January 2021 insurrection, the white nationalist response to democratic defeat has been to attempt to destroy US institutions and our national agreements. The Guardian, 22 Oct 2022.

American policing starting with slave patrols is a powerful idea, but does it become less so when, for example, we study what policing looked like around the globe — and in the American colonies — before slave patrols were first formed in the early 18th century? Garrett Griffin, 13 June 2022,

Recognizing that killings and maimings of unarmed Black people by police authorities in the United States escalate unabated and that effective domestic remedies are either non-existent or exacerbated by the policies of the federal government of the United States, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) decided to convene this International Commission of Inquiry. March 2021.

This report provides an in-depth look into the socioeconomic gaps between Blacks and Whites in Greater Kansas City while also questioning the presumption that focusing on equity alone will ameliorate the systemic racial inequality that has persisted for centuries. In addition to presenting a collection of provocative essays and op-eds, this report highlights some of the findings from the 2020 Black/White and Hispanic/White Equality Indexes. Urban League of Greater Kansas City, 2021.

Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses the 1619 Project and how it is reframing the way we look at American history. New York Times, 6 Sep 2019.

An detailed essay on the history of the black experience in the U.S., by Nikole Hannah-Jones. New York Times Magazine, 24 Aug 2019.

In the N.B.A., the very term “owner” has come under fire, as players, most of whom are black, assert self-determination. New York Times, 16 Aug 2019.

An essay on American capitalism's roots in slavery, by Matthew Desmond. The New York Times Magazine, 14 Aug 2019.

Over the centuries, the two most persistent physiological myths — that black people were impervious to pain and had weak lungs that could be strengthened through hard work — wormed their way into scientific consensus, and they remain rooted in modern-day medical education and practice. The New York Times Magazine, 14 Aug 2019.

The New York Times Magazine, 14 Aug 2019.

The new budget sets funds for libraries to $0. Library groups say the move is retaliation for suing the state over its recent book ban law. Vice News, 30 Mar 2023.

Facing smear campaigns and death threats, librarians are on the front lines of what they call an urgent battle for intellectual freedom. Washington Post, 4 Mar 2023.

In the last few years, an increasing number of books have been banned in states across the United States — with projections of the trend accelerating in 2023. Recent book bans in Texas, Utah, and Florida have resulted in hundreds of books being pulled off classroom and library shelves. Many of these books, labeled “sensitive materials”, are disproportionately books by or about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. In this article, the author analyzed recently banned books and authors in the US. Yennie Jun, 2 Mar 2023.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri is challenging a new state law that bans sexually explicit material from schools and has resulted in districts pulling hundreds of books from their shelves. The suit, filed on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, asks the circuit court in Kansas City to find the law unconstitutional. The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Jean Peters Baker in her capacity as the Jackson County Prosecutor and on behalf of all county prosecutors in Missouri. KCUR, 23 Feb 2023.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has crafted a proposal to block public funding for libraries if they offer books that are pornographic for minors or labeled as obscene under state statutes. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 15 Feb 2023.

Book bans have plagued many US schools throughout 2022, with stories focusing on LGBTQ+ and race issues being targeted by conservatives across the country, and the right aims only to step up its attempts at censorship in the new year, experts warn. States including Missouri and Utah have seen intensifying crackdowns in recent months. The Guardian, 24 Dec 2022

A recent school board meeting at which about 1,000 people gathered in Dearborn, Michigan, to pressure district officials to censor books with LGBTQ+ themes was in most ways similar to hundreds of other recent book ban hearings across the US. The Guardian, 16 Oct 2022.

A Texas school district is scrambling to remove books from its library shelves ahead of the fall semester, after they were challenged by parents and community members. Among the books removed are a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and the Bible. The Guardian, 23 Aug 2022.

A frequently updated index of state legislation aimed at censorship, with links to primary sources. PEN America, Updates ongoing.

A school board in southwest Missouri voted not to renew the contract of a teacher after parents accused her of using critical race theory. Kim Morrison, an English teacher at Greenfield High School, said the vote in mid-March came shortly after allegations surfaced about a worksheet she used as part of teaching the book "Dear Martin." Springfield News-Leader, 7 Apr 2022

eginning last year and continuing in 2022, dozens of states—mostly those with Republican-dominated legislatures and governors—have proposed laws and executive orders banning the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) or, more broadly, books and courses on America’s diversity. The political strategy behind these laws, particularly in rapidly diversifying Republican states, is really intended to appeal to nonparent voters who are fearful of the nation’s changing demography. The Brookings Institution, 30 Mar 2022

Suzette Baker was fired as head librarian at the Kingsland Branch Library in Llano County. According to Baker, a group of people had reached out to the library system about books that they said were “inappropriate” or “pornographic,” and they wanted them removed, but she disagreed. KXAN, 18 Mar 2022.

The racial reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in May, 2020, revitalized interest in teaching the literature of race and racism and of books by and about marginalized communities. This has led to a counter campaign to ban books, coordinated with groups like Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education and No Left Turn in Education, all funded by rightwing billionaire Charles Koch. Books with Black or LGBTQ+ themes are high on their target list. The Nazi book burnings in the spring of 1933 were a harbinger of what was to come. The epidemic of book banning sweeping our country today must be confronted and stopped now. Democracy Now!, 03 Feb 2022.

The Tennessee Dept. of Education is refusing to investigate a far right group’s claims that a second grade curriculum which includes books about Black Civil Rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is “anti-American” and “anti-white” – but on a technicality. The Williamson County, TN chapter of the group Moms for Liberty had filed an 11-page complaint with the state, claiming that the “classroom books and teacher manuals reveal both explicit and implicit Anti-American, Anti-White, and Anti-Mexican teaching,” as The Tennessean reports. AlterNet, 30 Nov 2021.

Outside of its native context in law schools, “critical race theory” (CRT) is not so much a theory as it is a periodizing frame for our historical moment. It is the common sense of our times. The portrayal of critical race theory as a discrete and debatable argument produces a convenient bugbear to frighten and animate the conservative base, and creates the illusion that CRT can be policed and sternly dispatched like so many unruly teenagers on a street corner. PEN America, 08 Nov 2021.

This report offers an in-depth analysis of state legislative efforts to stop educators from introducing specific subjects, ideas, or arguments in classroom or training sessions, from January to September 2021. The article documents the origins and extensive spread of various proposals and describes the many legal, constitutional, and civic concerns they raise. PEN America, Oct 2021.

Nineteen months after it was published by the New York Times, the 1619 Project remains in the public eye — primarily due to the efforts of its detractors to undermine it. Under the Twitter hashtag #1619Project, discussion on social media is nearly as robust today as it was when the special issue of the New York Times Magazine first appeared. And by consistently invoking the 1619 Project as an attack on America and then seeking to pass laws to ban its use in the classroom, right-wing politicians have given an unanticipated longevity to a debate about the future of the past. Washington Post, 07 Apr 2021.

The bill would allow parents to bring civil lawsuits against school districts. If a court found a school knowingly violated the bill’s provisions multiple times, then funds allocated to the school through the state’s foundation formula would be withheld until the school proved it was in compliance. KCUR, 1 Apr 2021.

Many historians are outraged. As T. Jameson Brewer of the University of North Georgia puts it to Barbara Rodriguez of The 19th*, “Do we want historical facts and details that are researched and published by experts taught? Or do we want nationalism taught? That’s a very scary sort of suggestion, that schools would engage in ideological nationalism for political needs.” Nonprofit Quarterly, 15 Feb 2021.

The school curriculum linked to the New York Times’ 1619 Project is once again the target of Republican lawmakers, who seek to ban the materials in Arkansas, Iowa, and Mississippi. Education Week, 03 Feb 2021.

Nikole Hannah-Jones was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine's groundbreaking exploration of the legacy of Black Americans starting with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619. Pulitzer Center, 05 May 2020.