In the summer of 2020, President Donald Trump phoned his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. Trump was worked up about the 1619 Project, a set of essays published in the New York Times that centered slavery in understanding the founding of the nation.
In a “rant,” DeVos recalled, Trump wanted to know how the administration could ban it from classrooms.
“I had to remind him that the United States does not have a national curriculum, and for good reason,” DeVos wrote in her 2022 memoir, “Hostages No More.” She told him directly: “The federal government can’t ban the 1619 Project.”
In a “rant,” DeVos recalled, Trump wanted to know how the administration could ban it from classrooms.
“I had to remind him that the United States does not have a national curriculum, and for good reason,” DeVos wrote in her 2022 memoir, “Hostages No More.” She told him directly: “The federal government can’t ban the 1619 Project.”