I received the following alarming notice from a friend in Illinois. Some organization wants to know whether schools in the state have any articles or books cited in “The 1619 Project.” This looks like the beginning of a McCarthyite witch hunt.
Subject: Interested in the 1619 Project? Work in IL schools and educational spaces? You’ll want to be aware of this. Public school districts are receiving this FOIA notice from a company called LocalLabs, a Chicago-based publisher (of sorts) that sells its FOIA research to news media outlets of all kinds. The librarians I work with are now scrambling with their districts’ attorneys and compliance officers to fulfill this request. I find it interesting that they’ve cherry-picked these particular titles and perhaps you do, too.
Their intent is unclear; their request, perfectly legal. It’s annoying for these personnel to have to take time away from students in order to comply but that’s our reality in schools today.
The request’s wording demonstrates a relative lack of understanding how school library holdings are cataloged, however, which is making compliance all the more time-consuming.
Here’s the form email they’ve been receiving from LocalLabs, which you can readily access through Googling.
I am writing to you on behalf of LocalLabs which is an online publication that reports on and informs the public about local government activities. If you are not the FOIA officer please forward it to the FOIA officer or reply to this email with the correct FOIA contact.
Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting electronic records (preferably non-PDF such as CSV, Excel) of the following:·
A list of all materials in your district that fall under the 1619 project. For reference, the 1619 project contains works with the following titles and authors:
“America Wasn’t a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One”, essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones·
“American Capitalism Is Brutal. You Can Trace That to the Plantation”, essay by Matthew Desmond·
“How False Beliefs in Physical Racial Difference Still Live in Medicine Today”, essay by Linda Villarosa·
“What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery”, essay by Jamelle Bouie·
“Why Is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?”, essay by Wesley Morris·
“How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam”, essay by Kevin Kruse·
“Why Doesn’t America Have Universal Healthcare? One Word: Race”, essay by Jeneen Interlandi·
“Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery”, essay by Bryan Stevenson·
“The Barbaric History of Sugar in America”, essay by Khalil Gibran Muhammad·
“How America’s Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder”, essay by Trymaine Lee·
“Their Ancestors Were Enslaved by Law. Now They’re Lawyers”, photo essay by Djeneba Aduayom, with text from Nikole Hannah-Jones and Wadzanai Mhute·
“A New Literary Timeline of African-American History”, a collection of original poems and stories
o Clint Smith on the Middle Passage
o Yusef Komunyakaa on Crispus Attucks
o Eve L. Ewing on Phillis Wheatley
o Reginald Dwayne Betts on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
o Barry Jenkins on Gabriel’s Rebellion
o Jesmyn Ward on the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
o Tyehimba Jess on Black Seminoles
o Darryl Pinckney on the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863
o ZZ Packer on the New Orleans massacre of 1866
o Yaa Gyasi on the Tuskegee syphilis experiment
o Jacqueline Woodson on Sgt. Isaac Woodard
o Joshua Bennett on the Black Panther Party
o Lynn Nottage on the birth of hip-hop
o Kiese Laymon on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “rainbow coalition” speech
o Clint Smith on the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina·
A list of all books written by authors Ibram X. Kendi (aka Henry Rogers) or Robin DiAngelo that are used in curriculum or libraries in your school district.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have Ibram X. Kendi in my classroom. I made the list! Yes! That makes me proud.
To me, one of the core tenets of teaching should be that a teacher has the autonomy to use the materials in their class as he or she sees fit. In my limited experience, the checks on me were from an engaged principal, headmaster, and parents. Even when they personally disagreed with me, if I could explain why, they always let me do what I wanted until I was proven wrong. And that wasn’t the end of the world.
LCT, you keep using whatever you want in your class. If you don’t use a book, essay or article that wasn’t banned somewhere, sometime, then I’m not sure if you’re a complete teacher in the first place!
Congrats, LeftCoast!
Pssst. Don’t tell them the United States Constitution is on the list!
What astounds me, when comparing this to the visions of Orwell, Huxley and others, is that while the narrative is imposed from above, it has quite a willing audience of foot soldiers that needs its thirst quenched.
They are trying to intimidate some librarians. I guess that they think that school librarians are little wallflowers and unwilling to fight for liberty. I would remind this fascist sounding group that their fear of libraries is well-founded, so maybe they should back off and leave education to real educators before they get revealed for being silly and ignorant. At the end, it is up to the reader/analyzer to make a decision about the book they’re reading. That is what we teach. If you don’t agree with a premise, you can argue. Freedom is knowledge. Ignorance is oppression. All I know is that I have some titles to buy. Thanks for the list 😃📚🎊
All I know is that I have some titles to buy. Thanks for the list.
Yes!!!!!
Just amazing how little actual benefit these groups contribute to public schools.
No positive agenda, no practical contributions, no real work. Instead it’s just an endless stream of bashing and criticism of public schools, and there are thousands of full time paid employee- activists engaged in this “work” nationally.
The Society of Professional Public School Critics. They looked at public schools after the covid crisis and said “let’s pass a bunch of laws banning the 1619 project!” or “let’s go in and yell and scream about masks!” A solid year of this “work”.
Public schools should cut the whole ed reform movement loose. They don’t add any value to our students or schools. They’re a net negative. Outside of standardized tests can anyone point to anything they have done that is even relevant to public school students? Can we just agree to take the tests and turn in the scores and in return they’ll promise to conduct these political campaigns somewhere other than in our schools?
“The Society of Professional Public School Critics.” What an appropriate title! Simple, succinct, catchy, humorous–and completely accurate. Classic.
All of the essays and poetry were published in The NY Times. Many schools have electronic access. Such a weird way of requesting this. If I were the librarian receiving this I’d shoot back a bunch of questions and refer them to our catalog which is no doubt online
So basically librarians are supposed to identify all electronic sources to which they subscribe that have published anything to which the 1619 project may have referenced as well as any physical copies they might have. LFT’s librarian is probably off the hook because the Kendi material is probably not a library copy. I wonder if they will try to police classroom libraries as well. (Mine was completely my own.)
Ed reformers ponder excluding Democrats and liberals completely, and just rebranding as an exclusively partisan Republican operation:
“This reconsideration of the focus on courting Democrats has many implications for how the choice movement might proceed. Choice advocates might decide to focus on universal school choice programs without means-testing or caps on program size, as they successfully did recently in West Virginia. The 2021 Education Next survey of public opinion found Republican support is greater for universal vouchers than for low-income vouchers, while Democrats were more supportive of vouchers for low-income families than for all families. Choice advocates might also embrace efforts to identify school choice as a mechanism that allows families to find learning options that reflect their values, enabling them to reject curriculum they do not like, such as Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project. That could appeal to a broader base of Republicans even at the risk of losing support among Democrats.
If the goal of the private school-choice movement is to get more programs adopted, the empirical evidence is clear that the historical practice of courting Democratic policymakers has not been effective. Indeed, it has likely been counter-productive. Proponents of school choice should make a values-based appeal for choice that could attract more families, and elevate choice as a solution to some of the most pressing education policy fights of the day.”
The ed reform “movement’ is hostile to public schools and offers absolutely no benefit to children or families who attend public schools. It exists to privatize K-12 education- it has no other purpose and performs no other work.
Public schools have a choice- they can continue to follow this echo chamber and destroy their own schools or they can find a new group of people to hire, outside the ed reform echo chamber. They cannot serve students by continuing to follow people who don’t support public schools. It hasn’t worked for the last 20 years and it will never work.
Who are you quoting in your 2nd and 3rd paragraphs?
As I said in the post, the content was sent to me by a friend in Illinois. She is a retired professor at DePaul University.
Sorry for the confusion–I was referring to Chiarra’s first and second paragraphs, immediately above. Looks like I used the wrong “Reply” icon.
They should also consider evidence. What we know about vouchers is they provide a worse education than public schools. Low value vouchers do not pay for a quality education. The values in public schools are American values. Public schools are often the glue that holds communities together.
I am writing to you on behalf of LocalLabs which is an online
stratification foundation. We are members of the FOIS.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION SMARTS.
We lack smartphones, search-smarts, and we don’t stay
at the Holiday Inn Express.
If you not are a member of FOIS, please forward our
list to someone who doesn’t comb their hair with a
hammer, doesn’t take 15 minutes to make minute rice,
doesn’t dwell at the freezer door with a can of orange
concentrate, thinking of t-rump, or in general
understands:
“Books are as useful to a “stupid” person as a
mirror is useful to a blind person.”
“Proponents of school choice should make a values-based appeal for choice that could attract more families, and elevate choice as a solution to some of the most pressing education policy fights of the day.”
A “values based appeal”
They have absolute contempt for public school families and public school students.
If you’re a public school and you’re hiring these people as consultants or taking direction from them you are doing public school students and families a real disservice.
Public schools should be run by people who support public schools and public school students. No charter or private school would ever take direction from people who bash charter and private schools and lobby against them- why are public schools taking direction from the ed reform “movement”?
They work AGAINST our students and schools yet we’re hiring them as consultants and managers and taking orders from them? Stop. It’s insane and no private school would ever do it.
Hire from OUTSIDE the echo chamber. They’re a small and insular group. It won’t be difficult to find qualified people who are NOT in this narrow, lockstep, anti-public school club.
“This looks like the beginning of a McCarthyite witch hunt.”
Traitor Trump wouldn’t like not getting any credit for what he thinks he started or at least wants everyone to think he started.
The traitor would brand this “a MAGA Mc-Trumpite with hunt”.
“Why Doesn’t America Have Universal Healthcare? One Word: Race”, essay by Jeneen Interlandi·
The US, the only wealthy democracy without universal health care. Yes, it has to do with race but it is also due to predatory capitalism. The insurance companies, drug companies and the medical-industrial complex make huge profits on the backs of sick people and the American public. The general welfare be damned, CEO compensation, benefits and bonuses are much more important than the health of the country. The medical-industrial complex fights universal health care tooth and nail and donates millions to the campaigns of those who fight against universal health care, the politicians who scream socialism or communism at the mere mention of a national health care system.
… and next door in Missouri,
The Show-Me Institute sent a freedom of information act request about Critical Race Theory to schools this summer. One school district responded with documents (Teaching Tolerance…) and a statement that they will confront “institutionalized racist practices!”
This follows Missouri’s attempt to pass a law prohibiting CRT, teaching the 1619 project, utilizing named consulting groups who do dismantling racism and “diversity” education for staff and students, and more. It didn’t get to the floor – probably a trade off for the outrageous voucher law they passed.
After the session, legislature held two hearings to “hear” more about CRT in the schools: 1 with only white folks invited to testify and the 2nd on the first day of school so no educators could attend.
Paranoia runs deep in the heartland.
LocalLabs says “Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting electronic records (preferably non-PDF such as CSV, Excel) of… all materials in your district that fall under the 1619 project.”
While this is troublesome for other reasons, why does it pose a problem for school librarians? Haven’t school libraries converted from 3×5 card-catalog files to computer files?
Why can’t a school direct LocalLabs (or anyone else) look up this information themselves?
Or, if access is limited, go in after school and look it up on the school library computers?
If it’s too far for them to drive, why is this info even relevant to them?
Does FOIA give everyone the right to request anything from any entity in any state?
Regarding LocalLabs, their website is minimal, lacking the basic information found on most websites. Benjamin Ashkar is the CEO; he’s in his 30s, with a degree in business analytics from Notre Dame. He describes himself as “analytically driven senior executive adept at organizational change, software development, and results-oriented process improvement.”
The usual drivel–do people actually write this stuff with a straight face?
If the librarian was unaware that these were all published together as part of the 1619 Project it would probably feel like a very strange request. (Not all school libraries are staffed by people with professional degrees.) The articles would certainly not be in the catalog even if the school has an online or print subscription.
But why can’t the person or group making this type of FOIA request be required to spend THEIR time looking?
School libraries are not large, complicated operations. The materials are in the catalog, or if not, they are on shelves or in classrooms. Why can’t a school say “We don’t have staff for this nor money in the budget, but here’s our data base, and if you don’t find what your looking for, come in after school and search the shelves for yourself. You can also make appointments to talk to teachers.”
Have legislators and courts put no limits on FOIA requests? Can anyone make long, repeated requests that disrupt school operations? What’s to keep enemies of public education from making continual harassing requests solely for the purpose of disruption? Can a school attorney file suit for damages? Is there no provision in FOIA for applicants to pay the costs they cause?
Perhaps it is time for schools to make Claudette Colvin/Rosa Parks-style refusals in order to generate a serious court case.
To comply with this request, schools would have to acknowledge that they subscribe to The NY Times. Would the Inquisitors insist that they cancel that subscription?
Posted at OEN. https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Illinois-Mysterious-Group-in-General_News-Critical-Race-Theory_Diane-Ravitch-210927-645.html
Looks like a different version but same idea as NC’s search to prove indoctrination in the public schools. This one heavy-handed (using FOIA), sneaky (using a data-collection agency so you can’t see who’s asking) and set up in a stdzd way so numbers can be crunched by computer– gotta guess some connection to Koch/ ALEC. I imagine this too will be a dud: next they’d have to prove simply having 1619 materials “in your district,” or Kendi/ DiAngelo works “that are used in curriculum or libraries in your school district” = CRT indoctrination in the classroom. Maybe the instigators are just hoping to find most districts have the offending stuff on-hand so they can get that info to the campaign mgrs of rw candidates for office.
This is politically motivated FOIA harassment and a waste of tax dollars. IL Dept of Ed should instruct districts to keep track of the hours & pay-level required to fulfill the requests & make that public– or perhaps an enterprising reporter can do so.
Yes, agreed! See my comment a couple of posts above. Schools should push back publicly, discuss this harassment at school board meetings, discuss the time and money drain with reporters and parents.
Oops–misidentified myself. This is Mark, not “m”.
Great reading list to distribute to students.