Alyssa Wilson ~ Assistant Editor
On March 24, 2022 over 1,000 people gathered in Turner Gymnasium at the University of Lynchburg to hear Nikole Hannah-Jones speak on ‘Truth, History and The 1619 Project’.
Hannah-Jones was awarded the 31st annual Rosel Schewel Lecture Award by the College of Education, Leadership Studies and Counseling. This award and lecture series seeks to educate attendants on a chosen topic that is deemed important by the Rosel Schewel Committee.
The Pulitzer prize winning creator of “The 1619 Project” focused on the themes that can be found throughout her book, and sought to highlight the contributions of Black Americans. Specifically getting rid of the idea that slavery is merely “an asterisk to the American story” as Hannah-Jones puts it.
A standing ovation welcomed Hannah-Jones as she took the stage to begin her lecture. Hannah-Jones compared “The 1619 Project”, a collaborative effort with The New York Times Magazine, to present day society. In doing this she discussed several legislations that have been proposed against “The 1619 Project”.
In one instance, a bill created by several senators sought to defund the book. Within in this bill, senators stated that “The 1619 Project” “threated the integrity of America”. In her lecture, Hannah-Jones rebutted saying, “It is impossible for a work of journalism to ‘threaten the integrity’ of the United States.”
Hannah-Jones’ acknowledged the Black Lives Matter movement and showed polling from the time of Americans being more aware of racial injustices than ever saying, “We had not seen polling like that before.” The Black Lives Matter movement, Hannah-Jones stresses is, “the largest movement in history” as it is multicultural and multigenerational in contrast to previous civil rights movements.
‘The 1619 Project’ was released in 2019 at the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship, ‘The White Lion’ arriving on colonial soil. The following year, 2020 was one of acknowledging racial injustices more than Americans ever had before.
Due to this sociological shift, ‘The 1619 Project’ proved to be a sort of lexicon for anyone looking to know more about the history of Black Americans and the importance of teaching “real history” in schools.
Hannah-Jones said, “We teach history because how we teach history is how we see ourselves as a country.”
Hannah-Jones was often interrupted by laughter and applause throughout her lecture while she took a playful, but serious approach to the topic.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A that was open to members of the audience. In a relevant fashion, as Hannah-Jones recently accepted a teaching position at Howard University, someone in the audience asked about the responsibilities of professors as it pertains to teaching their students topics that were broached in her lecture.
She said, “All I say to y’all is this: Your work does matter in ways big and small, and I’m just grateful for the courage of educators every single day.”
As Hannah-Jones walked off stage, she was once again met with a standing ovation from the audience members indicating how much of an impact she had made.
