Each semester, Episcopal Divinity School at Union selects a theme and a book as a guiding focus for a semester-long discussion on justice issues critical for faith communities. This Fall 2021, EDS at Union has selected The 1619 Project, an ongoing project from The New York Times Magazine 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 our national narrative.” 

Join us in reading The 1619 Project at the New York Times Magazine here or for free through the Pulitzer Prize Center here.

From the New York Times description of the project:

“The 1619 Project began with the publication, in August 2019, of a special issue of The New York Times Magazine containing essays on different aspects of contemporary American life, from mass incarceration to rush-hour traffic, that have their roots in slavery and its aftermath. Each essay takes up a modern phenomenon, familiar to all, and reveals its history. The first, by the staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones (from whose mind this project sprang), provides the intellectual framework for the project and can be read as an introduction.”

RSVP: Thursday, October 7, at 6:00 pm EST

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the author of The 1619 Project’s essay on the barbaric history of sugar production in America, will be joining EDS at Union on the evening of October 7, 2021.

Widely known as one of the most influential authorities on racial justice in America, Muhammad is redefining our understanding of diversity, with his work featured in the likes of the New York Times’ landmark 1619 Project, and Ava DuVernay’s 13th.

As Harvard Kennedy School Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy, he explains how “bias education”—race education—can help individuals and institutions reconcile the past within the present, and move towards greater equity, together.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, which won the John Hope Franklin Best Book Award in American Studies, also the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. Read his full bio here. 

Please join us in reading The 1619 Project and share your reflections with us this semester.