New York Times fabulist Nikole Hannah–Jones launched a school specifically dedicated to the debunked 1619 Project and the study of black history through the prism of Marxist-inspired constructs like Critical Race Theory.
The 1619 Freedom School is not affiliated with the 1619 Project but its Black History literacy curriculum is particularly important now when states, including Iowa where it’s located, are trying to ban the teaching of histories that center that Black experience.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) August 31, 2021
Hannah–Jones announced the creation of the 1619 Freedom School, a “five-days-a-week after school program” located in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, which is the “worst place in the U.S. to be black,” she claimed on Twitter.
“It’s not enough to succeed if your community is struggling,” she wrote. “You have to try to pull people up with you. I am so proud to announce the launch of the 1619 Freedom School in my hometown…”
Hannah–Jones claimed the school was not officially “affiliated” with the 1619 Project, but noted its “black history literacy curriculum” will focus on the Critical Race Theory initiatives that are being banned in several states, including Iowa.
The school’s motto will be “Liberation Through Literacy,” she said, and will provide every student in the program a “take-home library” of books on black history.
Hannah–Jones’s 1619 Project has been slammed by historians as a false and ahistorical interpretation of the American founding. Despite this, several school districts across the country have included it in their curricula.
A handful of states have passed legislation that bans the teaching of the 1619 Project and other Critical Race Theory doctrines in public schools.
In Florida, for example, the state’s Board of Education approved a rule advanced by Gov. Ron DeSantis to ban any teaching that defines “American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”
In North Carolina, a new anti-indoctrination law that specifically addresses CRT was pushed successfully through the state legislature by black Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. However, the bill is likely to be vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.
