If We Really Want Democracy in This Country, ‘Follow the Lead of Your Most American of Americans’
Revisiting Pulitzer Prize Winner Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 2019 Chautauqua Lecture
To mark Black History Month, we’ve showcased recent programs from Chautauqua stages and online platforms that have given voice to the Black experience in America. These words and images provide critical context for the important and difficult work — and action — to which this moment calls us, to advance the cause of justice. This is not an effort limited to February, however. Chautauqua Institution will continue to amplify and elevate the work of Black experts and creators as part of our ongoing and imperative work and investments in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA), as outlined in our strategic plan 150 Forward. Read a status report here.
During a week tracing “Moments That Changed the World” in 2019, we were honored to host New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones for a lecture based on her research, reporting and editing for the magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,” which would be released later that summer. 1619 is the year the slave trade arrived in North America.
“It was the year 1619 that our decision to become a ‘slaveocracy,’ which is what we decided, is as important as our decision in 1776 to become a democracy,” Hannah-Jones said. “You can’t disentangle those two from the identity of our country, who we would ultimately come to be and who we are as a nation right now.”
Many Americans don’t understand the significance of that year, that moment, as the extensive history of slavery in this country often only receives fleeting mention in our textbooks.
“That’s intentional,” she said. “W. E. B. Du Bois called this ‘the propaganda of history,’ that in trying to make the mythology of America, we had to downplay the role of slavery because slavery is incompatible with democracy.”
The system of slavery that evolved in America was also uniquely heinous, Hannah-Jones said, and created an ethos that echoes through our history to today. Picking up The Chautauquan Daily’s coverage:
To further understand American slavery, Hannah-Jones said one has to understand how it differed from slavery that functioned in other parts of the world. Unlike slavery outside of the country, slavery in the United States fell under five different categories: It was racial, it was heritable, slaves were treated as property, they operated under social deaths and, lastly, slavery was permanent.
“We are an exceptional country in that we invented an exceptional institution of slavery,” she said.
But the discrimination of Africans did not end with slavery itself. Even people opposed to slavery were opposed to black equality.
“Most abolitionists wanted to end slavery and then they wanted to get rid of the black people who were here,” she said. “We actually believed as a nation that black people were incompatible with democracy. Once black people could no longer be used as free labor, black people should cease to exist in the United States.”
The racism that developed to justify the trafficking of human beings became an irreversible part of America, according to Hannah-Jones.
“The institution of slavery can end, but it can’t end this belief about the inherent inferiority of black people or the problem of people who are forced to live under that system,” she said.
The highest irony of the shameful history of American slavery, Hannah-Jones said, is that Black people are “the most American of all Americans.”
“Africans were made Black,” she said. “They were shorn of any of those connections, they were forced to create a country anew here in this country. There are no countries to go back to. The names of Black people are the names of people who enslaved them. There is no tongue that you could learn, there is no connection you can make. Those who were considered the least, actually ended up being the most.”
It’s because of that identity, and the legacy of suffering that began with slavery, Hannah Jones said, that Black people are often the ones leading efforts to assure rights for all. Statistics show Black Americans, more than any other demographic group, consistently vote in a way that promotes the common good.
“If we really want to be a democracy, if we really want to be a country who cares about all of our citizens, not just ourselves, if we want to live up to those founding ideals, follow the lead of your most American of Americans,” Hannah-Jones said. “Trust black women, starting with this one.”
