Common Read 2020: The 1619 Project
Selected readings from The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project, led by New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, is a re-examination of the legacy of slavery in America. In August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia, the newspaper launched the project with a special issue of the New York Times Magazine. Selected essays and literary works from that special issue are this year's common read.
The links below are to accessible online versions of the articles available to Mount Holyoke users. If you are off campus, you will be prompted for your MHC username and password. These links, PDF versions of the essays, and additional PDFs of the selected literary works are also available in a self enrolling Moodle course site. To access the site visit 2020 Common Read: The 1619 Project, click on Continue, select Mount Holyoke as your organization, and login using your MHC username and password.
Not a current Mount Holyoke College student, faculty, or staff member? You can find a free PDF of the August 18, 2019 New York Times Magazine issue on the Pulitzer Center website. Note that this free PDF may not be fully accessible.
- Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "The Idea of America." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 14."Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. Black Americans fought to make them true. Without this struggle, America would have no democracy at all." Pulitzer Prize-winning opening essay of The 1619 Project
- Desmond, Matthew. "Capitalism." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 30."In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation."
- Interlandi, Jeneen. "A Broken Healthcare System." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 44."Why doesn't the United States have universal health care? The answer begins with policies enacted after the Civil War."
- Kruse, Kevin M. "Traffic." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 48."A traffic jam in Atlanta would seem to have nothing to do with slavery. But look closer. ..."
- Bouie, Jamelle. "Undemocratic Democracy." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 50."What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery."
- Villarosa, Linda. "Medical Inequality." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 50."How False Beliefs in Physical Racial Difference Still Live in Medicine Today."
- Morris, Wesley. "American Popular Music." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 60."Why Is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?"
- Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. "Sugar." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 70."The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the 'white gold' that fueled slavery."
- Stevenson, Bryan. "Mass Incarceration." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 80."Slavery gave America a fear of black people and a taste for violent punishment. Both still define our criminal-justice system."
- Lee, Trymaine. "The Wealth Gap." The New York Times Magazine, 18 Aug. 2019, p. 82."How America's Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder."
Nikole Hannah-Jones on the 1619 Project
Nikole Hannah-Jones - Reframing the legacy of slavery with the 1619 Project. Extended interview from The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, 2/5/2020. Click on video to start, mouse over bottom of video to display control bar and click CC to turn on captions.