The 1619 Project - The New York Times

[Lee Cruz]

Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.

By Nikole Hannah-Jones, AUG. 14, 2019 New York Times

My dad always flew an American flag in our front yard. The blue paint on our two-story house was perennially chipping; the fence, or the rail by the stairs, or the front door, existed in a perpetual state of disrepair, but that flag always flew pristine. Our corner lot, which had been redlined by the federal government, was along the river that divided the black side from the white side of our Iowa town. At the edge of our lawn, high on an aluminum pole, soared the flag, which my dad would replace as soon as it showed the slightest tatter....

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are. Read all the stories.