Title: Lawmakers Push to Ban '1619 Project' From Schools
Headings: Lawmakers Push to Ban ‘1619 Project’ From Schools
Lawmakers Push to Ban ‘1619 Project’ From Schools
Social studies groups push back
History education should invite debate, not stifle it
Calls on lawmakers to focus on the pandemic
Sarah Schwartz

Content: Whether these bills pass or not, they demonstrate the persistence of backlash to curricula that center Black history and Black stories, said Stephanie P. Jones, an assistant professor of education at Grinnell College. Attempts to gloss over the more challenging parts of the country’s story in schools didn’t start with the Trump presidency, and they won’t end with its conclusion, Jones said. “This type of mishandling of curriculum has been in place since U.S. public schools have been in place,” she said. “ They were not designed to educate Black children, and they were not designed to educate white children to be critical of anything related to the foundations of this country.” Still, for Zimmerman, something about this cultural conversation feels different. “Most disputes over history since the 1920s in this country have been about who gets included in the story,” he said. Movements for representation resulted in more people of color, and more women, being inserted into the dominant narrative of continual progress toward a more perfect union. “This is the first time we’re debating in a substantive way not just who should be included, but what their inclusion does to the story,” Zimmerman said. “ I think the Republicans are right when they say the 1619 Project is a threat. I just think it’s a good threat.”