The NY Times 1619 Project Revisited

Dear Baileyblog readers,

This past year, it was an honor to participate in the prize winning 1619 Project which commemorates 400 years of African presence and the legacy of slavery in the United States.  Congratulations again to NY Times reporter and 1619 Project creator, Nikole Hannah, Jones, for winning the Pulitzer Prize for her opening essay.  The project has also won a special George Polk Award and most recently won this year’s Infinity award. Congratulations to all the contributors, photographers and editors!  Honestly, awards are great but the greatest reward is to see this history move from margin to center.  It is also rewarding to see young people across country (in over 3500 schools) examining this history and these debates in their social studies curriclum as happened here. Look at the amazing artwork and poetry produced by young people inspired by the project!

Here is the first installment of the project here when it launched in August 2019.

https://pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf

In February of this year, I was again happy to work with The NY Times on researching and writing about little known slave auction sites across the country.

My research team at the Harriet Tubman/Binghamton University Center for The Study of Freedom and Equity found fewer than 50  sites yet by some estimates there were 1.2 million slave sales between 1760 and 1860.  Furthermore, sites of African American focus represent only 2 per cent of those registered on the Naitonal Register of Historic Places–not all of which are devoted to slavery.

See here text by me and photos by Dannielle Bowman.  Thanks too to editors Jake Silverstein and Claire Gutierrez for helping a wordy professor be less wordy! (no easy task 🙂

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/12/magazine/1619-project-slave-auction-sites.html

Following the publication of the article, NY Times reporter, Adeel Hassan, did a follow up interview.  His probing and insightful questions about my contribution can be found here.

Finally, as many of you know, there has been some debate about Hannah-Jones’ incredible essay.  See below the response I wrote months ago which I am sharing again here because my support still stands and this post sums up what I think the 1619 Project was trying to do:  Bring history to the people.

http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2020/01/the-1619-project-and-bringing-history-to-the-people/

Thanks again for sharing these and other posts as you see fit. Please also consider adding your email and joining Baileyblog to your right.

And stay safe in these challenging times!

Anne C. Bailey, author of The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History (Cambridge University Press, 2017)