1776 Unites is a project launched by civil rights activist

Robert Woodson Robert Leon Woodson Sr. (born April 8, 1937) is an American civil rights movement, civil rights activist, community development leader, author, and founder and president of the Woodson Center. The Woodson Center is a non-profit research and demon ...

that seeks to unite

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

s to advocate principles like entrepreneurship, self-determination, and mutual social support through a series of essays published on its website. Woodson created the project as a response to the

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 ...

. Notable contributors to the project include academics such as

Carol M. Swain Carol Miller Swain (born March 7, 1954) is a retired professor of political science and Law of the United States, law at Vanderbilt University. A frequent television analyst, she is the author and editor of several books. Her interests include ra ...

Glenn Loury Glenn Cartman Loury (born September 3, 1948) is an American economist, academic, and author. He is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University, where he has taught since 2005. At the age of ...

Jason D. Hill Jason Damian Hill (born c. 1965) is a Jamaican-American professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. Childhood and career Hill was born and grew up in Jamaica. He describes himself as "mixed race" in Caribbean terms, but "perceived as ...

, Wilfred Reilly, Shelby Steele,

John McWhorter John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist with a specialty in creole languages, sociolects, and Black English. He is currently associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches Amer ...

, Ian Rowe, and John Sibley Butler:, as well as other contributors including journalists

Coleman Hughes Coleman Cruz Hughes (born February 25, 1996) is an American writer and podcast host. He was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a fellow and contributing editor at their ''City Journal'', and is the host of the podcast '' ...

Clarence Page Clarence Page (born June 2, 1947) is an American journalist, syndicated columnist, and senior member of the ''Chicago Tribune'' editorial board. Early years Page was born in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Middletown High School in Middletown where ...

, and Delano Squires. 1776 Unites essays discuss the lives of successful African-Americans, and the project includes an

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

curriculum.

The project's message

Contributors to 1776 Unites promote current and historical examples of prosperous Black communities as “a powerful refutation of the claim that the destiny of Black Americans is determined by what whites do, or what they have done in the past.” 1776 Unites also promotes the work and thought of entrepreneurs, philanthropists, business and community leaders, and others it considers
Achievers
" to illustrate the opportunities for success that are open to African Americans today, their contributions to national economic and cultural life, and their stake in U.S. life and history. Robert Woodson said his central motivation in founding 1776 Unites was to counter the narratives he contends were embedded in the

, developed by the ''New York Times'', which postulates that the founding of America in a structural and economic sense occurred not in 1776, the year of its declared independence, but rather in 1619 when the first Black slaves arrived. In addition to critiquing arguments that place slavery at the center of the United States’ origins, 1776 Unites also publicizes the historical achievements of African American individuals and communities, including those who had been “in slavery but not of slavery” and became successful business leaders after emancipation.

History of the project

1776 Unites was launched at the National Press Club on February 14, 2020, and on that same day partnered with the conservative newspaper ''

Washington Examiner The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...

'' to release a series of essays critical of the 1619 Project, arguing that slavery and its ugly legacy should not be seen as definitive of the black experience. In September 2020, 1776 Unites announced a curriculum that will offer life lessons from largely unknown or forgotten African-American figures from the past, such as

Elijah McCoy Elijah J. McCoy (May 2, 1844 – October 10, 1929) was a Canadian-American engineer of African-American descent who invented lubrication systems for steam engines. Born free on the Ontario shore of Lake Erie to parents who fled enslavem ...

and

Biddy Mason Biddy Mason (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) was an African-American nurse and a Californian real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was one of the founders of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, Calif ...

, who triumphed over adverse conditions to gain independence and prosperity.

References

{{Reflist

External links

1776 Unites
1776 in the Thirteen Colonies 2020 introductions Black conservatism in the United States Slavery in the United States The New York Times 2020 neologisms