The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

A compelling look into both the history and present of America can be found in The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.

A ship carrying twenty to thirty African slaves landed in the British colony of Virginia at the end of August 1619. With their arrival came the extraordinary and savage system of chattel slavery in the United States, which persisted for the next 250 years. Though it goes beyond that, this is frequently referred to as the nation's original sin since it is the foundation of many things that still characterize the United States.

The New York Times Magazine's award-winning "1619 Project," which reframed our knowledge of American history by centering slavery and its ongoing impact at the core of our national narrative, is the foundation for The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. This book builds significantly on the first "1619 Project," combining thirty-six poems and works of fiction that highlight significant instances of oppression, struggle, and resistance with eighteen articles that examine the legacy of slavery in contemporary America. The pieces demonstrate how 1619's legacy permeates every aspect of modern American life, including politics, music, food, transportation, citizenship, commerce, religion, and democracy itself. The tales we tell, the lessons we impart to our kids, and the ways we recall are all products of this heritage. When taken as a whole, the book's components provide a fresh account of the founding of the United States that explains not just why anti-Black racism and inequality still exist in the nation today but also what makes it special in the first place.

The book also includes two original pieces by Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of which argues for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice, and an expanded version of the Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay from the original project about how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans.