Pulitzer Center Update February 26, 2021

Pulitzer Center Announces Initiative To Bring ‘The 1619 Project’ to Schools and Universities

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Artwork by Adam Pendleton in The 1619 Project, page 15. 2019.
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The Pulitzer Center is proud to partner with The New York Times Magazine on The 1619 Project to...

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The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce The 1619 Project Education Network, a four-year initiative to build a national network of educators who will design, teach, and share curriculum based on The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project and Pulitzer Center education resources.

The 1619 Project is a series of essays and creative works, published in August 2019, that seeks to reframe our national story with Black Americans at its center. The project interprets many of our current societal injustices by revealing their origins in the enslavement of Black people.

The 1619 Project Education Network launched last week with a call for applications inviting educators, administrators, content specialists, and curriculum supervisors for K-12 schools and school districts to apply for the inaugural cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. Educators and administrators working with adults and youth in jails, prisons, or youth detention facilities are also encouraged to apply.

We are also launching a companion program – The 1619 Project Law School Initiative – in partnership with Howard University School of Law and the University of Miami School of Law. Launch events include online sessions with journalists Linda Villarosa on March 3 and Nikole Hannah-Jones on March 10. The partnership, aimed at incorporating original educational resources into law school curricula on racial justice and the legacy of slavery, is part of the Racial Justice initiative by the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation and its Deans’ Circle.

A digital portal will showcase our work on 1619, serving as a repository for all the education and journalism resources associated with the project. The Pulitzer Center anticipates this visually arresting platform will be live by summer 2021.

The Pulitzer Center's national education work on The 1619 Project is a partnership with the journalists and editors behind this landmark New York Times Magazine initiative. We are grateful to the foundations and individuals who have joined this effort, especially our lead supporter, Facebook. Other donors include Humanity United, the Trellis Fund, the Art for Justice Fund, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

“It has been a privilege for the Pulitzer Center to be the lead education partner on The 1619 Project,” said Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center Executive Director. “We’ve learned much from the students and teachers who have engaged with the project thus far. This initiative is an effort to nurture, connect and expand that learning process exponentially—at a time when many thousands of educators are on a common path toward a more inclusive and honest curriculum.”

As part of this paid, virtual program, a cohort of 40 education professionals will receive grants of $5,000 each to support exploration of key questions of racial justice and other pressing issues in a community that also includes award-winning journalists and the Pulitzer Center education team.

Over the course of 2021, network members will develop standards-aligned units that engage students in The 1619 Project, and other journalism and historical sources, to strengthen connections to existing curricula, practice media literacy skills, and build empathy. They will also manage the implementation and evaluation of units by at least two educators in multiple classes, share their projects publicly through the Pulitzer Center's online lesson library and virtual professional development programs, and devise plans for revising and expanding use of their units in 2022.

For more information, please see the call for applications.

This marks the second partnership between the Pulitzer Center and Facebook. In 2019, the Pulitzer Center launched Bringing Stories Home, a local news initiative that brings our innovative approach to reporting and educational outreach to regional news outlets across the United States. Supported in part by a $5 million endowment gift from Facebook, Bringing Stories Home has already funded over 64 reporting projects from all parts of the United States.

The Art for Justice Fund has supported the Pulitzer Center’s work in recent years on mass incarceration and criminal justice issues, with an emphasis on engaging audiences through visual and performance arts. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s support will facilitate incorporation of The 1619 Project in the foundation’s innovative afterschool network. Humanity United and the Trellis Fund are long-time supporters of the Pulitzer Center’s work.

About the Pulitzer Center

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting in-depth engagement with under-reported global issues. We sponsor quality international reporting across all media platforms and a unique program of education and outreach to communities, schools, and universities. Visit the Pulitzer Center online at pulitzercenter.org.