The 1776 Commission, also nicknamed the 1776 Project, was an
advisory committee
An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...
established in September 2020 by then-U.S. President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
to support what he called "patriotic education".
The commission, which included no historians specializing in
United States history
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
,
[ released ''The 1776 Report'' on January 18, 2021, two days before the end of Trump's term. Historians overwhelmingly criticized the report, saying it was "filled with errors and partisan politics".] The commission was terminated by the successive President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, his first day in office.
History
Trump first spoke of giving students a "patriotic education" on September 2, 2020. He reiterated his intention to establish the commission in a proclamation on October 6, 2020. The commission was conceived partly as a response to ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is a long-form journalism endeavor developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Times Magazine'' which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery an ...
, which explores American history through an African-American framing. Various federal laws prohibit the federal government from directly regulating school curricula, which are determined by school districts under rules established by state governments. However, the federal government influences state and local decisions through funding.
Establishment
Trump announced the new commission in a speech on September 17, 2020, in which he contended that a "twisted web of lies" regarding systemic racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
was currently being taught in U.S. schools, calling it "a form of child abuse."[ On November 2, the day before the 2020 elections, Trump officially established the commission by ]executive order
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...
. Trump appointed the commission's members on December 18, 2020. The commission held its first meeting on January 5, 2021.
Under the executive order, Trump established an 18-member group[ serving a two-year term appointed by the president, which is to write a report on "core principles of the American founding and how these principles may be understood to further enjoyment of 'the blessings of liberty'".]
Goals
According to the executive order establishing the commission, the commission's goal was to end what it calls the "radicalized view of American history" which has "vilified he United States'Founders and tsfounding". In response to the work of figures like Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
and groups like the 1619 Project, the 1776 Commission sought to increase "patriotic education" via a centralized approach to nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
curriculum. This effort is linked to Trump's wider attacks on critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
.
The commission was also intended to promote these concepts at national parks
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...
, landmarks, and monuments among other federal properties; federal agencies were instructed to provide grants and initiatives in a way that prioritized those supporting "the American Founding".
Members
The 18-member commission was composed of conservative activists, politicians and intellectuals; it included no professional historians of the United States.[ Trump appointed the Commission's members on December 18, 2020.] The chair was Larry Arnn, the president of the conservative Hillsdale College, and the co-chair was Carol Swain
Carol Miller Swain (born March 7, 1954) is a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University. A frequent television analyst, she is the author and editor of several books. Her interests include race relations, immigration, ...
, a Black conservative who is a former professor at Vanderbilt Law School
Vanderbilt University Law School (also known as Vanderbilt Law School or VLS) is a graduate school of Vanderbilt University. Established in 1874, it is one of the oldest law schools in the southern United States. Vanderbilt Law School has consiste ...
.[ Others appointed by Trump include his ex-domestic policy advisor ]Brooke Rollins
Brooke Leslie Rollins (born April 10, 1972) is an American attorney who is the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute. She previously served as the acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council under President Don ...
; Charles R. Kesler, a Claremont Graduate University
The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...
professor and editor of the conservative journal ''Claremont Review of Books
The ''Claremont Review of Books'' (''CRB'') is a quarterly review of politics and statesmanship published by the conservative Claremont Institute. A typical issue consists of several book reviews and a selection of essays on topics of conservati ...
''; conservative activists Ned Ryun, a Bush speech writer; Charlie Kirk; Phil Bryant, the Republican former governor of Mississippi
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
; and classical historian Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for ''The New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ...
; as well as John Gibbs; Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy (born November 13, 1954) is an American businessman. He is most famous for co-founding the computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim. In 2004, while still at Sun, ...
, founder of Curikki, an online curriculum company; Peter Kirsanow
Peter N. Kirsanow (born October 30, 1953) is a partner with the law firm of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, working within its Labor & Employment Practice Group in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a black civil-rights commissioner and a member of t ...
, a black Civil Rights Commission member; Thomas Lindsay, a professor of Political Science; Michael Farris, a lawyer and professor of Political Science; and former Representative, Bob McEwen. Trump also selected then-United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the presidential line of succe ...
Ben Carson
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he ...
to serve on the committee.
''The 1776 Report''
Contents
The commission released the 41-page "The 1776 Report" on January 18, 2021, two days before the end of Trump's term and the inauguration of Joe Biden
The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, marking the start of the four-year term of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. The 59th presidential ...
.[ The report does not include citations or footnotes, and does not identify its main authors.][ About half the pages in the report were appendices.
Among other things, the document identifies "]progressivism
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tec ...
" and "racism and identity politics
Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these i ...
" as "challenges to America's principles" and likens them to "communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
," "slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
," and "fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
." It refers to the pro-slavery U.S. politician and former U.S. vice president John C. Calhoun as "the leading forerunner of identity politics" and criticizes some aspects of the civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. The document also describes American universities as "often today ..hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship" and criticizes feminist movements
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such i ...
. It concludes with recommendations to promote positive stories and images of the country's founders at home, in schools, and in the arts, among other things.
Reception
Historians condemned the report, saying it was "filled with errors and partisan politics" and identified factual inaccuracies and a lack of scholarship. The American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
(AHA), in a statement cosigned by 33 other historical societies, stated that the report was completed "without any consultation with professional historians of the United States." On January 19, 2021, the Association of University Presses
The Association of University Presses (AUP) is a membership organization of university presses, founded in 1937 as the Association of American University Presses. AUP has over 150 members including, Cambridge University Press, Johns Hopkins Unive ...
released a statement: "While we leave it to historians to offer a detailed rebuttal of the document's inaccuracies – if any should choose to do so – we note that it is plagued by procedural deficiencies that would render it unpublishable as a serious work of scholarship."
James Grossman, the executive director of the AHA, criticized Trump's push for so-called "patriotic education," writing that genuinely patriotic history is a rigorous effort to study the past honestly and acknowledge complexity, rather than "cheerleading"; "nationalist propaganda"; or "simplistic and inaccurate narrative of unique virtue and perpetual progress." Grossman described the 1776 Commission's report as "a hack job" that was "not a work of history," but of "cynical politics." Grossman said, "This report skillfully weaves together myths, distortions, deliberate silences, and both blatant and subtle misreading of evidence to create a narrative and an argument that few respectable professional historians, even across a wide interpretive spectrum, would consider plausible, never mind convincing."
Historian Timothy Messer-Kruse
Timothy F. "Tim" Messer-Kruse (born ) is an American historian who specializes in American labor history. His research into the 1886 Haymarket affair led him to reappraise the conventional narrative about the evidence presented against those bro ...
likened the content of the report to "every moldy trope of 1950s fifth-grade civics books" and wrote that it misrepresented the beliefs of founding father John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...
as expressed in Federalist No. 2. Historian Eric Rauchway
Eric Rauchway (born 1969 or 1970) is an American historian and professor at the University of California, Davis. He received his B.A. from Cornell in 1991, and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1996. Rauchway's scholarship focuses on modern US political, ...
criticized the report for misreading John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...
's " City upon a Hill" speech and for the report's claims regarding the civil rights movement. Historian Alexis Coe, a biographer of George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
, said the report was riddled with "errors, distortions, and outright lies" and mischaracterized Washington's involvement with slavery. Kevin M. Kruse and other historians criticized the report for suggesting that Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
would have opposed affirmative action, noting that King in fact endorsed affirmative action during his life. Even historians who were critical of the 1619 Project, such as Sean Wilentz
Robert Sean Wilentz (; born February 20, 1951) is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. His primary research interests include U.S. social and political history in the ...
of Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, criticized the report of the 1776 Commission. Wilentz described the report as "the flip side of those polemics
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
" and "basically a political document" that "reduces history to hero worship."
Historians also noted that portions of the report had been copied without attribution from earlier writings by its authors (including a 2008 op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
by Thomas Lindsay published in ''Inside Higher Ed
''Inside Higher Ed'' is a media company and online publication that provides news, opinion, resources, events and jobs focused on college and university topics. In 2022, Quad Partners, a private equity firm, sold Inside Higher Education to Time ...
'' and a 2002 Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...
essay and Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses.
It was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president. It sponsor ...
essay written by Matthew Spalding, the commission's executive director).[
Commentator Eugene Scott criticized the commission's report for suggesting "that identity politics is something unique to those outside of the Trump administration"; Scott writes that Trump's rhetoric and ]Trumpism
Trumpism is a term for the political ideologies, social emotions, style of governance, political movement, and set of mechanisms for acquiring and keeping control of power associated with Donald Trump and his political base. '' Trumpists ...
"has been rooted in identity politics": specifically, a prioritization of demographic groups that are "largely White, Christian and appealing to traditional gender norms." Writing for ''Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'', Rebecca Onion described the report as "a screed forwarded by a Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
-poisoned aunt, one that might best be politely ignored" and noted historian Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass (born February 19, 1959) is an American historian of Christianity and an advocate for progressive Christianity. She is the author of eleven books, many of which have won research or writing awards.
Bass earned a PhD in re ...
's fear that the report was "'a huge gift' to white evangelical Trump supporters, who have long taught this vision of history to children who are enrolled in Christian schools or home-schooled."
Commission members Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for ''The New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ...
and Mike Gonzalez defended the report. Hanson argued that the report did not "whitewash the continuance of many injustices" in U.S. history and defended the report's declaration that "progressivism" was at odds with American values, while Gonzalez, a senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation, criticized media coverage of the report and argued that Biden's disbanding of the commission was an outcome of "the woke
''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...
left" waging a "war on U.S. history."
Termination
On January 20, 2021, hours after he was inaugurated as Trump's successor, President Joe Biden issued an executive order dissolving the 1776 Commission. The report was removed from the White House website, although the National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
archived the report, along with the entire Trump White House website.
In May 2021, Matthew Spalding, the commission's executive director, announced the commission would resume its activities in a non-governmental capacity.
In November 2021 Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein (born 1975 in California) is an American writer and magazine editor. He is the editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the author of ''Nothing Happened and Then It Did'', a novelized memoir.
Early life
Silverstein ...
noted in an article for ''The New York Times'' that state level anti-critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
laws that had passed following the 1776 commission's end contained language and intent similar to the 1776 commission's final report.
1776 Action, a 501(c)(4)
A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exe ...
group headed by Republican operatives that was formed after the dissolution of the 1776 Commission, takes its name from the Commission. The group, led by former aides to Ben Carson
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he ...
and Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...
, promotes what it calls "patriotic education" and says that it aims to combat "anti-American indoctrination"; it proposes a Trump-inspired "1776 pledge" for officials and candidates. The group has promoted an anti-"critical race theory" bill that passed in New Hampshire, and endorsed candidates in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election and in school-board races in Iowa.
See also
* 1776 Unites
* Censorship of school curricula in the United States
Throughout the history of the United States, various topics have been censored and banned in education, including teaching about evolution, racism, sexism, sex education, and LGBTQ+ topics. Due to the federal system of the country delegating state ...
* Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities
The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) was a UK Government commission supported by the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office. It was established in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter George Floyd protests in the United Kingd ...
* Commission on Unalienable Rights
The Commission on Unalienable Rights was a commission created under the United States Department of State, U.S. State Department in July 2019. It released its final report in August 2020.
History
Background
In July 2018, the State Department ...
* Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...
* Historical negationism
Historical negationism, also called denialism, is falsification or distortion of the historical record. It should not be conflated with ''historical revisionism'', a broader term that extends to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned academic reinterp ...
* National Garden of American Heroes
The National Garden of American Heroes was a sculpture garden honoring "great figures of America's history" that was proposed by President Donald Trump in executive orders on July 3, 2020, and January 18, 2021. Trump first announced the idea at a ...
References
Further reading
*
*{{cite journal , last1=Ostler , first1=Jeffrey , last2=Jacoby , first2=Karl , title=After 1776: Native Nations, Settler Colonialism, and the Meaning of America , journal=Journal of Genocide Research , date=2021 , volume=24 , issue=2 , pages=321–336 , doi=10.1080/14623528.2021.1968143, s2cid=239698995
External links
The 1776 Report
in the National Archives
2020 establishments in the United States
2021 disestablishments in the United States
Articles containing video clips
Education in the United States
Historical revisionism
Propaganda in the United States
Trump administration controversies
United States national commissions