1619 Project

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• 9/8/2021
  

  The Specter of Emancipation and the Road to Revolution: A Rejoinder to Richard Brown et. al.

  by Woody Holton

  Woody Holton responds to a recent open letter of criticism by six Revolutionary-era historians of his interpretation of the significance of slavery as a motivation for colonial independence. 

• 
• SOURCE: Medium
  9/7/2021
  

  Group of Historians Challenges Woody Holton's Interpretation of the Significance of Dunmore's Proclamation

  by Richard D. Brown et. al.

  A group of scholars argues that the famous 1775 decree by Lord Dunmore that enslaved Virginians who joined the British forces would be emancipated was a desperate act that followed, not precipitated, the drive of white Virginians toward independence. 

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• 8/8/2021
  

  Historians Can't Leave the Teaching of History to Politicians

  by Walter G. Moss

  As a historian of Russia, the author finds today's political interference with history teaching "like Soviet authorities forbidding Soviet history teachers to mention Trotsky’s role in bringing the 1917 communist revolution about."

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• SOURCE: NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  7/6/2021
  

  Nikole Hannah-Jones Issues Statement After Passing Up UNC for Howard University

  “I cannot imagine working at and advancing a school named for a man who lobbied against me, who used his wealth to influence the hires and ideology of the journalism school, who ignored my 20 years of journalism experience, all of my credentials, all of my work, because he believed that a project that centered Black Americans equaled the denigration of white Americans."

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• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  6/30/2021
  

  Nikole Hannah-Jones Finally Has Been Granted Tenure. But the Damage Is Already Done.

  It's uncertain that the Board of Trustees' decision to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones will lead her to join the University of North Carolina, and unlikely that the decision will erase the damage done by conservative interference in university governance. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/30/2021
  

  Nikole Hannah-Jones Granted Tenure by UNC Trustees

  The vote was 9-4, after a number of protesters were removed from the room. It is not now known if Hannah-Jones will now accept the appointment at UNC. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  6/29/2021
  

  Finally: Tenure Vote for Hannah-Jones

  by Colleen Flaherty

  The Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will hold a special meeting Wednesday, reportedly to vote on tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/14/2021
  

  Professor: Why I Teach the Much-Debated 1619 Project — Despite its Flaws

  by John Duffy

  "Some critiques are intended to undermine if not cancel the 1619 Project. Yet the questions these criticisms raise about history, ideology and the legacies of slavery provide compelling reasons for teaching the project in schools and universities."

• 
• SOURCE: Harper's
  6/15/2021
  

  History as End: 1619, 1776, and the Politics of the Past

  by Matthew Karp

  "Current American inequalities, many liberals insist, must be addressed through encounters with the past. Programs of reform or redistribution, no matter how ambitious, can hope to succeed only after the country undergoes a profound “reckoning”—to use the key word of the day—with centuries of racial oppression."

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  6/2/2021
  

  The Conservative Disinformation Campaign Against Nikole Hannah-Jones

  by Alice Marwick and Daniel Kreiss

  Two of Nikole Hannah-Jones's prospective UNC colleagues describe the pressure to prevent her being hired with tenure a part of a long pattern of conservative political activism using disinformation and distortion as weapons to control what is taught at universities.

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  5/25/2021
  

  Trump Teams Up with Newt for New Contract With America

  If Newt Gingrich is to be belived, the Republicans hope to win back Congressional majorities by focusing on culture war grudges that involve historians –particularly targeting the teaching of critical perspectives on American racism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Root
  5/25/2021
  

  We Stand in Solidarity With Nikole Hannah-Jones

  by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and Martha S. Jones

  "The University’s Board of Trustees has failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. And too many lawmakers have wrongly deemed it their role to reach into classrooms and tell educators what to teach and how to teach it."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  5/25/2021
  

  Academic Tenure Is Broken. Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Case Makes That Clear

  by William Egginton

  Many academics have objected to political interference in the University of North Carolina's decision to ignore the faculty recommendation to tenure Nikole Hannah-Jones as a Knight Foundation Chair of Journalism. This incident should not obscure the ways that the tenure system entrenches inequality when it works properly. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/24/2021
  

  We Have Criticized Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her Tenure Denial Is a Travesty

  by Keith E. Whittington and Sean Wilentz

  Two scholarly critics of Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 Project say that the actions of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees set a dangerous precedent for academic freedom. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  5/23/2021
  

  What is at Stake with Nikole Hannah-Jones Being Denied Tenure

  by Siva Vaidhyanathan

  "For more than a decade a powerful conservative cabal has been undermining academic research, freedom and excellence at what was until recently the pride of that rising and growing state."

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• SOURCE: NC Policy Watch
  5/19/2021
  

  PW Special Report: After Conservative Criticism, UNC Backs Down From Offering Acclaimed Journalist Tenured Position

  “This is a very political thing,” the trustee said. “The university and the board of trustees and the Board of Governors and the legislature have all been getting pressure since this thing was first announced last month. There have been people writing letters and making calls, for and against. But I will leave it to you which is carrying more weight.”

• 
• SOURCE: TeenVogue
  5/19/2021
  

  Campus Cancel Culture Freakouts Obscure the Power of University Boards

  by Asheesh Kapur Siddique

  The real power at American universities lies with their boards of directors, which are increasingly drawn from the ranks of corporate America and have shown themselves willing to enforce ideological restrictions on teaching and research. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Root
  5/6/2021
  

  We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

  "If The 1619 Project is an attempt to rewrite history, which version of history does the GOP fear is being altered?"

• 
• SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
  5/3/2021
  

  Letters From an American, May 2, 2021

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  Mitch McConnell's demands that the Department of Education reject a proposal for social studies education that emphasizes antiracism shows that his party is more interested in using education to wage a culture war than in actually improving civics and history education. 

• 
• SOURCE: NBC Connecticut
  5/4/2021
  

  Connecticut Professor Sends Controversial Anti-1619 Project Email Blast to Public School Superintendents

  A professor of European history at Central Connecticut emailed every public school superintendent in the state to urge them not to allow use of the 1619 Project in their districts, raising questions about the use of state email resources and the control of history curriculum in secondary schools.