More Republican Anti-1619 Project Bill

President Joe Biden dissolved the 1776 commission on his first day in office, and Republican state officials have taken matters into their own hands.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Last week I wrote about a Mississippi state senator that introduced a bill called — Saving American History in Mississippi Schools Act. The bill was introduced in order to withhold state funds from any school that teaches the Pulitzer Prize winning 1619 Project. I pointed out, in 2019, Mississippi’s public school system was ranked 4th worst in the nation by Insider magazine. I concluded, under those circumstances defunding schools over the 1619 Project was irresponsible.

Recently, the USA Today reported Republican Lawmakers in Arkansas, Iowa, and South Dakota introduced similar bills that would cut funding to K-12 and colleges that provide lessons from the 1619 Project.

The 1619 Project was a collection of essays published by the New York Times Magazine in 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Africans arriving in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The Pulitzer Prize Center, in partnership with the 1619 Project, created lesson plans and over 4,000 schools across the country are using the lessons. However, the 1619 Project promoted two controversial ideas that critics believe do not…