I have always been fascinated with my African American history, so I chose to look deeper. While I was researching ideas for my third Apollo project, I came across the 1619 Project by The New York Times Magazine. It is a project that aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the United States national narrative. I wanted to learn about why the 1619 project could help students and others understand the diversity in our country.
English
At the beginning of my English project, I researched some authors and essays involved in the 1619 Project. I came across names others may have heard of, like Nikole Hannah-Jones, an American investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. Or maybe Matthew Desmond, an American sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. One of the essays I read and took notes on was called "America Wasn't a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One", by Nikole Hannah-Jones. The reason why she wrote her speech was that she wanted people to know what Black Americans went through to help America become what it is today.
After taking notes about why some of her points stood out to me, I did a compare and contrast between the 1619 Project and President Trump's executive order of the 1776 Commission. The 1776 Commission was created by President Trump to be an education commission to support his view of "patriotic education" and to prepare for, and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. These projects have many differences, with the 1776 Commission focusing on patriotism, while 1776 focuses on beating oppression and how we still need to overcome system racism in our diverse country.
For the product of my English portion, I created a persuasive speech about why the 1619 Project Curriculum or something similar should be recognizable in our academic learning. The central idea of the lecture was to illustrate why students should be able to learn about the 1619 Project Curriculum to expand their studying regarding history because it's paramount to learn about how America started and how the foundation began. When we study different perspectives about our history, we discover more than on the other side of the story. Overall, I believe my English project turned out very thoroughly and was what I expected. I had a lot of entries about why the essay stood out to me, and that help creates my speech. I wanted to make the address to bounce off the history essay about incorporating the 1619 project into our education system. My persuasive speech flew together, and I'm proud of the work I did and wouldn't change it because the matter is essential.
History
When I started to research the history portion of my project, I thought of starting with finding statistics about the education system and how it affects children of minority students, especially among black and brown students. For example, I researched that African American students are less likely than white students to have access to college-ready courses. About only 57% of black students had access to full range math and science courses to prepare themselves for college, compared to that of Asian American students with 81% and 71% of white students in the 2011-2012 school year. With this fact, I explained that this is true for most schools because the education system seems to favor races that aren’t black or brown in the United States. Minorities tend to get less help than their counterparts, and I think it’s sad that the education system doesn’t even want to be fair when it comes to our young generation learning principal life skills for the near future.
The next then I did was research why the education system, federal government, and economic system work together. I asked questions like how the economy affects the government, why the economy affects the government, why should the government play a role in the economy, why are more diverse perspectives necessary in education, and so on. For instance, I believe it's obligatory to have various viewpoints in education because it shows the youth and students to have a diverse background and allows them to reflect on our world outside the walls of the classroom. Students gain more comprehension and understanding when working and learning with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures present in the study halls. That is also good for our students because it teaches them how to use their strengths and points of view to contribute to a diverse working environment. I wrote down the reasons why each question is so significant and used that information for my persuasive essay.
My product was the persuasive essay for the history aspect of my project. I wanted to get the message out that when students learn in a diverse community, it allows them to learn more in school, but also it permits them to understand their peers. Our education system needs to change, especially in an aspect, in my opinion. We learn about the average colonization of European people, Presidents, slavery, and a few important people who made history in America. But I think students are missing out on learning about the true diversity of America because it looks different today than it did hundreds of years ago. If we place an effort to transition into a better educational system, students will benefit from it.
In the end, the final history turned out pretty nice. I'm going to add a paragraph that draws a transition between how the government, economy, and education system affect one another and why it's so important to learn about that whole unit. Making the education system equal to everyone would benefit this generation, and I think any young student who reads my essay would agree.
Art
Coming up with an illustration project was difficult because I didn't know what to prepare. I knew I was writing an essay for history and a speech for the English portion. The 1619 Project didn't have an artist, so I decided not to paint, but they did have poems. At first, I thought, why would I make a composition for art class? Then I realized that I could write a poem but then use that composition to create a short film that describes why we must change this world and make it easier for the following generation to breathe without systemic racism always being in the demeanor.
The first thing I did was research on how I can record a poem because I never did it before. I scribbled notes and followed the five steps to produce my short movie. After reading the five steps, I watched videos of compositions arranged by other people on youtube. I thought the writings were impacting and helped me understand how I wanted my poetry recording to transpire.
Afterward, I researched different poems from writers from the 1619 Project. I looked at several of the poets' writings, like Clint Smith's When people say, "we have made it through worse before", Yusef Komunyakaa's Facing It, Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought from Africa to America, and so much more. These poems encouraged me because they wanted to express their story through poetry so people like me can understand my culture. I was comfortable with all of these poems, and they helped influence me to create my poem called Breathe.
My poem is Breathe, and it's a poem that talks about changing the appearance to create a cleaner atmosphere where systemic racism isn't always fluttering in the air. It's a composition that describes fixing the country so that this succeeding generation doesn't have to be in our shoes.
Reasoning
The reasoning is the act of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way. While working on the project, I used reasoning as a critical thinking skill to explain why the 1619 Project from The New York Times Magazine would help students learn about the diverse history of America. When we understand the diverse history of America, students become engaged in what they are learning and allows them to benefit academically. Students can learn about their history through the 1619 Project because they could read and analyze essays, poems, read notable work, art, create projects of their own, and so much more. Another thing that would help these students learn would be financial help from the government. If the federal government assists schools with financing programs for these kids, they can benefit academically. When must make sure the next generation learn anyway possible, whether it's with academics, soft skills, long-term skills, or anything that can help them in the future. I hope you enjoyed my reasoning on why the 1619 Project could help students learn about the diverse history of America and what changes that still need to happen to make this country a verifiable democracy.
Here is a Webpage
Here is my Annotated Bibliography