Page 159 - 1619 Project Curriculum
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Excerpt “Leading up to the civil rights movement, Howard was virtually the only law
school in the South that served black students. It became an incubator for those
who would use the law to challenge racial apartheid in the North and the South
and help make the country more fair and democratic.”
“The school continues that legacy today, producing more black lawyers than
perhaps any other institution. In May, it graduated its 148th class, and the four
newly minted lawyers featured here were among the graduates. All of them
descended from people enslaved in this country.” —Nikole Hannah-Jones
As a sixth-generation descendant of slavery, I am essentially a part of the first
generation of descendants to carry the torch that was lit by my ancestors into
true freedom.’’ —Septembra Lesane, a recent graduate of Howard University
School of Law
Key Names, census, estate, Freedmen’s Bureau, genealogy, Historically Black Colleges and
Dates, and Universities (HBCUs), property ledgers, will
Terms
Guiding 1. What challenges do black Americans face in tracing lineage, and what
Questions strategies have been used to address those challenges?
2. What similarities and differences do you notice between the stories of
the ancestors of the four Howard University School of Law students?
3. How do the portraits help tell the stories of the people who are profiled?
18. “Shadow of the Past” by Anne C. Bailey (text) and Dannielle Bowman (photograph) (page 98)
Excerpt “This spot [pictured] is the site of the largest auction of enslaved people in
American history… A photo can’t capture the contribution those 436 people
made to the economy of their country, or the gifts and talents they lent it. (As
part of the Gullah Geechee community, they were among those who gave the
world a song of peace, ‘Kumbaya.’) What you do see are two tracks, intersecting
but going in different directions, toward different outcomes — a fitting
metaphor, perhaps, for black and white life in America.”
These materials were created to support The 1619 Project, published in The New York Times Magazine August
2019. You can find this and more educational resources at www.pulitzercenter.org/1619
