Activity 1

Create a Quote Museum: Critical Reading and Visual Art

The 1619 Project uses a mix of historical research, personal reflection, analysis, and creative writing to challenge dominant narratives about U.S. history. This activity asks you to read selections from the issue critically and highlight ideas they want to share with their community, then present those ideas in creative ways.

Step 1. Choose one article and one creative piece (poem or story). Click here for an index of options. While you read, identify quotes from both pieces that challenge and/or inspire you; write these down.

Step 2. Select quotes that you want to display for your class and/or school. Consider how you want to present them visually; you can design a typeface, create visual art that interprets the quote, or choose a photograph that illustrates what you want readers to consider when they see the quote.

Step 3. Post your creatively presented quotes alongside those of your classmates in a public place in your school or community to create a curated gallery that offers others a glimpse into The 1619 Project.

Activity 3

Mapping Your Community’s Connections to Slavery

Step 1. For context on how U.S. geography was shaped by the institution of slavery, read “Chained Migration: How Slavery Made Its Way West” by Tiya Miles (page 22) and/or “The Idea of America” by Nikole Hannah-Jones (pages 14–26).

Step 2. Research your own state or community in order to answer the following questions:

• To whom did your state or community’s land belong before it was colonized by the U.S., or what would become the U.S.?

• Why did the U.S. want to own this land?

• What industries were developed on this land after the U.S. acquired it? Whose labor fueled those industries?

• How is your community shaped by the institution of slavery today?

Step 3. Choose a creative format in which to present your research findings. You might develop a presentation including discussion questions and deliver it to your class or school; write an essay modeled on the essay(s) you read in step 1; create a poster incorporating primary source documents to show your research; or conduct a photography/visual art project in which you show your community’s historical and present-day connections to slavery.

Activity 5

Questioning History: What Do You Know About Slavery, and Why?

In “Why Can’t We Teach This?”, Nikita Stewart writes, “[T]he United States still struggles to teach children about slavery. Unlike math and reading, states are not required to meet academic content standards for teaching social studies and United States history. That means that there is no consensus on the curriculum around slavery, no uniform recommendation to explain an institution that was debated in the crafting of the Constitution and that has influenced nearly every aspect of American society since.”

What do you know about slavery, and where does that information come from? Choose an educational resource to explore, such as a textbook, an assigned film, your school library, or a local museum. While you explore your chosen resource, use the following table to analyze it.

Questioning History.pdf

Curating our learning!

Curation Space Designers: