Page 132 - 1619 Project Curriculum

Option 1: Oral History

Begin your investigation through oral history: Talk to family members, such as parents,

grandparents, and cousins, to find out as much as you can about your family history, going
back as many generations as possible. Create a visual presentation to share this with your class,
answering the following questions to the fullest extent possible:

• What is your family’s history of movement and migration? What other countries, cities,
and towns did your ancestors live in?
• Who were important members of your family in past generations?

After comparing your classmates’ presentations, discuss: How might the process of

constructing your family history be different from that of your classmates, and why?
Option 2: Imagined Ancestry
An ancestor can be a person from whom you biologically descend, but they can also be a person

“from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed.” From whom do you claim
descent? Create a family tree poster, but instead of populating it with your blood relatives,
populate it with your inspirations. Who are your intellectual, artistic, or spiritual parents,

siblings, cousins, grandparents? Be creative; include at least 10 people in your imagined family
tree, and explain why you are claiming them.

3. 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 students 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.

4. Infographic Design: Visualizing Contemporary Linkages to Slavery

The 1619 Project challenges readers to identify connections between modern day society and

the mechanisms that supported and maintained slavery in the U.S. Many of the authors support

their claims with data, including statistics and demographics. How could you visualize this
information to make it easy for audiences to understand and share widely?