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   Zoom Meeting   

We invite people from all four local villages to participate in a series of ten weekly Zoom conversations about the deepest dynamic of American History: race. Our reflections will focus on one topic each week but will not be a traditional course or even a book group. Participants will have opportunities to reflect in small groups. In August 2019, the New York Times Magazine published a special issue full of questions about America’s founding.

Why do we celebrate the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620 but ignore the White Lion that brought enslaved Africans who were sold at Jamestown in 1619? Nikole Hannah-Jones, who created the special issue, asks: "Why hadn’t any teacher or textbook, in telling the story of Jamestown, taught us the story of 1619?" She writes that the enslaving of Africans was never marginal to American history. It was central and inextricable. The erasure, she suggests, has been deliberate and systematic over centuries. Ms. Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award for the original 1619 Project, but dozens of states quickly banned it from schools.

Trustees at the University of North Carolina denied her tenure in journalism. Although they relented, Hannah-Jones moved on to Howard University. In a new best-selling book, entitled The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, Nicole Hannah-Jones has widened and deepened the study with thoroughly documented chapters written by distinguished experts. Topics include Race, Democracy, Fear, Capitalism, Self-Defense, Punishment, Medicine, Church, and more. Interspersed between chapters are nuggets of historical narrative and poetry that offer glimpses into the lives of Black Americans, both while they were enslaved and since emancipation.

Our series will begin on January 17, the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday observance, and will run ten Mondays at 1:00 p.m. All conversations will be recorded and made available within the Village Common but not to the public at large.

Registration is required!
Please click the "Register Now" button located at the top of this page.  You will receive an email with the Zoom link early on the morning of the event.  Should you need assistance registering, please call 401-441-5240, and a service coordinator will lend a hand.

The Village Common relies on donations to offer our programs. This event is free to attend, but we thank you for any contributions you choose to give. Click on this button to donate.