The 1619 Challenge: Born on the Water

Beautiful and poignant
I read this poetic and historical photograph to my 8-year-old triplet grandchildren, hoping to get through a few pages before their normal hyperactivity set in. Instead, they sat around me as I narrated this wonderful story, enraptured by the journey from West Africa to Virginia, a terrible trip to a foreign place. At the end of the story, these three beautiful, blond children asked so many unanswerable questions, begged me to tell them more about what happened to the slaves. Did anyone in our family, long ago, own other human beings? Yes, sadly, yes. Wasn’t it illegal to keep people as slaves? No, sadly, no. Why not? Money, mainly, I said. One of them said, “ Does everyone know this story? I didn’t know how to tell them that some people in some states don’t want white children like them to be sad about slavery, so I just said that. And one of the boys almost shouted:”Well, that’s stupid! How can people get better if they don’t know the truth!” How, indeed. Buy this book. Buy several copies and give them away to children, Black and White. And hope we get better.

Free, Stolen, Enslaved, Resistance, Legacy, Pride
I attended an evening with phenomenal author Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her conversation about The 1619 Project was passionate, soul stirring, unapologetic real kitchen table talk. I could not wait to get the books. I ordered both the adult and the children’s book. I read the children’s book first, so that I could be prepared immediately to share with my grandkids. I totally enjoyed this book from cover to cover and page by page! The beautiful illustrations by Nikkolas Smith compliment the story. Each page shows the illustrations from a free race of people thriving abundantly in their home land, being kidnapped, enslaved, chained on a ship of horror sailing to America, The brutality of hundreds of years of enslavement, the resistance, the hope, the survival, the legacy, and the pride! This book is a great way to share where the African American story began, how our ancestors built this country called America, the strength of our race and the pride. Let’s be clear…every Black child should know that they are their ancestors’ dreams come true.

A Children’s Book Every White Adult Should Read
If you’re interested in understanding history and/or CRT, then I have a challenge for you. Would you consider reading a children’s book to become a more informed citizen?
“The 1619 Project: Born on the Water” was written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project, and Renée Watson, a New York Times best-selling author.
It’s a picture book filled from cover to cover with beautifully illustrated scenes by Black artist/activist Nikkolas Smith. His art is intended to spark conversations around social justice and inspire positive change in the world. I’ve included
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water is framed by a homework assignment on family origins given to a young African American girl. She tries to do the assignment but becomes stuck tracing her family history any further back than three generations. It falls to her grandmother to share the history of her family prior to that, and it’s Grandma’s story that fills the pages of the book.
Grandma starts her family’s story over 400 years ago calling to mind what life was like before slavery. Hannah-Jones and Watson write the grandmother’s words and effectively weave a vivid tapestry of culture stolen and heritage interrupted.
By keeping the focus on a specific small group strangers kidnapped near the same time and shipped to Virginia, the reader is reminded that those who were kidnapped were humans thriving in their families, living in community, and embedded in their own culture.
The authors accurately identify the kidnappers and slave owners as white people. And I realize this could cause some white people to become defensive, but it’s the truth. And it’s a truth we must face if we are ever to move beyond the racism baked into our society. We are grownups. It’s time.
I read this book to my husband this morning, and as I expected, it included information we were never taught in public school. There comes a point in our lives where we have to take responsibility for filling in the gaps of our education—especially around the history of our own country.
Being educated in public school meant we learned a white-washed history intended to instill a sense of patriotism and pride. This was accomplished not only by what they taught but—even more so—what they did NOT teach.
Even though The 1619 Project: Born on the Water is a children’s picture book, I highly recommend it as a GREAT starting point for anyone who wants to understand the basic premise of CRT; anyone who loves history; and anyone who is on their own personal DEI journey and/or reckoning with the history of slavery in the United States. It’s a book every white person should read. Full stop.
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Beautiful….
Beautiful book, written as poems. Important toknow

beautiful illustrations with a strong and at the same time sensitive text