The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

“The Camp” fiction by Darryl Pinckney

“An Absolute Massacre” fiction by ZZ Packer

On July 6, 1853, the Colored National Convention met. Black activists, left out of political institutions, deliberated together with days of discussion, “demonstrating a capacity for full citizenship” (220). After the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, enslaved people were set free but not given citizenship. Today, there are many routes to citizenship, but birthright was not always one of them. It was only the 1868 passage of the Fourteenth Amendment that gave any person born in the United States citizenship, no matter their race, sex, or political affiliation, and this was thanks to the work of Black activists.

After emancipation, many Black people born in the United States wanted to make a life here. However, many white Americans favored the idea of colonization—sending Black peoples back to Africa. The passing of the Fourteenth Amendment secured birthright for all American citizens and was a brief glimpse of the changing political and social ideas to come. The National Convention of the Colored Men of America met in 1869 under new terms: They and five million Black Americans were now citizens of the United States. Even though there was ambivalence about Black citizenship, they knew they needed to bring meaning to their new status.