let me bring back in nikole hannah-jones and john meacham. okay, they're here.from lincoln, your book, jon meacham. for lincoln, a world in which power was all, in which a singular will trumped all, was not moral but a moral, not democratic autocratic, not just but in unjust. >> i think that there has to be a moral commitment to something larger than yourself, and andy united states, our best, human nature, it's best, it's been to a pursuit of justice. a realization of a promise that way americans made, which we did not live up to, which is that we are all created equal. lincoln elevated the declaration of independence, one of a singular contributions, when he said four score and seven years ago, he was going back to the declaration, not the constitution. he was going back to the mistaken, not to the compromise manual to make concessions to the slave power. that commitment was essential. >> let me express my intense jealousy that i was not at your democracy's on it. ta-nehisi coates -- a few people there. i covered my presence at that sometime, to listen to all

if you are a young scholar who was untenured and, you saw what could happen to nikole hannah-jones jones. despite her macarthur and pulitzer. when we went through the list of her awards, i said that would be a great achievement for a department. if a department had that many, you would say that was a premiere. nicole has those in her pantry in her on her shelf by herself. and so if you were a scholar that's emerging in the field the sign would be don't don't do this work because you were incredibly vulnerable. so it's all of those things that we talk when we talk about dr. woodson, we talk about dr. dubois. we talked about the circumstance is that the boys wrote the souls of black under those are the kind of dynamics that we're talking about trying to reinstate and impose on black scholars, writers, black students and and really offshoots they say students across the board anyone who's interested in knowing the actual truth of this nation's history and its functioning. can i just add really quick addendum? i mean, this to me is just obvious, but this entire convening would be outlawed an

, this particular moment, because i think your book joins the conversation with people like nikole hannah-jones and imani perry clint smith, hanif abdurraqib and mariam kaba. just a whole range of what i would call black artist, activist, scholar poets, writers who are really using black cultural and literary traditions. this moment, i think, in striking ways that actually both parallel the first and second reconstruction, but go beyond because we have such multiple quality. so it's not just james, you know, and i love james baldwin, but it's and so much of it is really black women multi generationally telling our story i'll say not even their story telling our story yet because. it's part of my story too. i want you to discuss that terms of the trayvon generation, the way in which you really mind in brilliant ways here, generational, literary and cultural traditions in the african-american and vein poetry, prose, music, song gospel, just the whole range. right. and it's really, really well. why is this such a striking time where even during the moral rot that you describe, we're seeing such a

nikole hannah-jones, jon meacham, brilliant. that is tonight's read out. chrissy starts now. y starts now >> tonight on all in -- >> if we don't unify behind kevin mccarthy, we're opening up the door for the democrats -- >> at the first opportunity, he would supper faster than you can say jewish space laser. >> leaders fight for the house and senate upside down. >> are you yourself back image pocono? >> i would do much better than mcconnell. >> tonight, a republican party in absolute chaos, as a disgraced ex president returns to lead them. >> this is certainly not the rollout i am sure donald trump wanted for his announcement tonight. >> plus rick houston on how democracy failed in the face of maga. >> what happened last night with kari lake, that's positive that this magazine of does not work. >> and what the pentagon, russians and nato are saying about the explosion that killed two people over the ukraine border in poland? all in starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. there's a lot going on right now, a lot sprawling around us. right now, we're waiti

professor at your loved department of african american studies at princeton university, and nikole hannah-jonesark 1619 project. author of the accompanying book, the 1619 project. the coal, the crux of your 1619 project aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black americans at the center of our national narrative. exactly what it seems that virginia is trying to block. your book has been extensively challenged. it's surprising this is happening at the state level? >> no. absolutely not. we know glenn youngkin ran his campaign on this idea of teaching a more sanitized history that would protect the feelings of white children. we know that history and how it's taught has always been contested in the united states. that's so much of what we call history is really memory. it is selectively putting certain things into curricula that gives us a certain concept of what america is. but everything in happens in history happened. it really is about, what do we teach? what do we teach about what happens? what do we put in? but do we leave? out

nikole hannah-jones's latest efforts, but 16 19 project, a new origin story, was released earlier this week. how does this new origin story of the united states, compared to the historical realities of the pilgrims, and the mayflower compact, what seems to be the greatest weaknesses of the 1619 project, and why should that matter to us? >> -- i think it's important for us to understand and nature of the conversation we're having. we have two stories, and the story of family members, and the story of national memory. we aren't always aware, not always positive, of the power of those things fit together, how they mesh. when i've spoken about the mayflower compact, i spoken about it from the perspective of the opening alliance upon god and the instruction, before they even mounted the ship, they had it newly imposed on them to arrive at the destination, not just geographically, morally. that they had aimed for. but we are perhaps led a straight when we focus too much on the lofty purpose and too little on the ordinary souls. souls like ourselves. because the real story of the united state

after the backlash against nikole hannah-jones, 1619 project, you know of an organized effort by the academic community to preserve our undiluted u.s. history? >> guest: you know, so what i see is to the american historical association, through the american, of the association for the study of african american life and history, i'm seeing that those organizations are really doing the work of ensuring that our history is taught, that it is preserved. i'm seeing this in archives, the archives are working overtime to make sure that the original documents and the original artifacts are still there so that we can see them. in at emory we have our stewart rose library, and in there, for instance, we had the sclc papers, and we've got the signs, actually the street signs from resurrection city which was the poor people's campaign in 1968 that continued on after the assassination of martin luther king. so you see archives, d.c. historical organizations, associations really doing this work. but it behooves all of us too, when you have the school board flooded with angry parents, and i put tha

, this particular moment, because i think your book joins the conversation with people like nikole hannah-jones and imani perry clint smith, hanif abdurraqib and mariam kaba. just a whole range of what i would call black artist, activist, scholar poets, writers who are really using black cultural and literary traditions. this moment, i think, in striking ways that actually both parallel the first and second reconstruction, but go beyond because we have such multiple quality. so it's not just james, you know, and i love james baldwin, but it's and so much of it is really black women multi generationally telling our story i'll say not even their story telling our story yet because. it's part of my story too. i want you to discuss that terms of the trayvon generation, the way in which you really mind in brilliant ways here, generational, literary and cultural traditions in the african-american and vein poetry, prose, music, song gospel, just the whole range. right. and it's really, really well. why is this such a striking time where even during the moral rot that you describe, we're seeing such a