Will the 1776 Commission Continue to Oppose the 1619 Project?

            Former President Donald Trump saw the damage being done by the 1619 Project and appointed 18 members to his newly created President’s Advisory 1776 Commission. President Joe Biden abolished the commission on his first day in office. However, the 1776 Commission did not die but merely worked without federal appointment. The commission submitted its report to the White House, but the Biden administration has removed it from the WhiteHouse.gov site.

            According to Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal, the appointed members of the 1776 Commission met yesterday at the Hillsdale College campus in Washington, D.C. They expressed a united opposition to a federal regulation that promotes the teaching of critical race theory in school. They called for states and other localities to establish groups in their areas to promote the true and accurate history of America. At the end of a one-page statement, the commission stated the following. 

Lastly, recalling the long history of citizen participation in our civic life, we call on states, counties, and local communities to form their own 1776 commissions to advance this great work of American renewal as we prepare for the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in July 2026.

            In their published statement, the commission made clear that they oppose the proposed regulation by the Biden Department of Education to make it a priority to federally fund the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 school systems.

We are concerned that the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule defining priorities for the American history and civics education programs, whether as critical race theory or under the misleading name of “antiracism,” actually encourages and seeks to direct federal funds to the teaching of racial discrimination in America’s elementary and secondary school systems.

This proposed rule should be withdrawn, and individual states should oppose any such race-based pedagogy as part of their curricula, especially if that curricula is imposed by the federal government.

The Constitution leaves education to the states and localities and denies the federal government any authority to impose national curriculum standards. The federal government should not circumvent this obstacle by using federal funding to entice states and localities to adopt what it wants taught in the nation’s schools. We learned from the failed Common Core experiment that one-size-fits-all national models are a blueprint for trivializing and mechanizing learning.

Instead, we encourage a genuine civics education that will rebuild our common bonds, our mutual friendship, and our civic devotion and eagerly look forward to the forthcoming release of curricula designed in the true spirit of 1776.

            Critical race theory seeks to teach everything about America through the lens of race.

Thus, they teach that America began in 1619 when the first black slave came to America. The 1619 Project seeks to teach school children to hate each other and to hate their country, while the 1776 Commission seeks to create “consensus on historical facts of America’s founding, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.” Its report in January 2021 focused on the “bleaker parts of U.S. history such as slavery and restriction of voting rights to white males.” Nevertheless, activists and commentators on the left were critical of it. This is the reason why it no longer exists at WhiteHouse.gov.

What Will the 1776 Commission Do to Save Real American History?

            Before he left office, former President Donald Trump formed the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission with 18 members. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden disbanded the commission. Even though it is “no longer a presidential advisory commission or associated with the federal government,” the group will gather in Washington, D.C., on May 24 for a four-hour, working-lunch meeting. 

            Matthew Spalding, executive director of the commission as well as vice president of Washington operations for Hillsdale College, said that “It will continue in some form.” The appointees to the commission are all patriots who are familiar with United States history and the Constitution. They are all opposed to the 1619 Project.

            The public comment period ends soon for an Education Department regulation that would fund critical race theory in schools as well as promote the teaching of the 1619 Project. Critical race theory teaches that Americans are either an oppressor or the oppressed – depending on the color of their skin. The 1619 Project teaches that America began in 1619 when the first slave arrived in the colonies and that the Revolutionary War was fought to maintain slavery.

            The 1776 Commission may have been de-commissioned, but the patriots on it have not disbanded. Spalding sent a letter on Monday to the Department of Education outlining his thoughts on the proposed regulation.

The Department of Education’s proposed rule defining priorities for the American history and civics education programs, under the misleading name “anti-racism,” actually encourages and seeks to direct federal funds to the teaching of racial discrimination in America’s elementary and secondary school systems.

The proposed rule should be withdrawn, just as individual states, which actually have the authority over the nation’s K-12 educational system, should oppose race-based pedagogy as part of their curricula and even if attempted to be imposed lby the federal government.

            Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn and Carol Swain, a retired political science professor at Vanderbilt University were appointed to be the chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, for the commission. On behalf of Arnn, Spalding sent a message to members of the commission on Monday.

The work of the 1776 Commission was and is a noble effort. The 1776 Report calls for a return to the unifying ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence…. As we said in our statement on January 20, “the Commission may be abolished, but these principles and our history cannot be. We will all continue to work together to teach and to defend them.”

            You can find more information about the commission at this site. In January, the commission published its report with the goal of creating consensus on historical facts in the founding of America and the Declaration of Independence. While the report details the Constitution, it “focuses on bleaker parts of American history, such as slavery and restricting voting rights to white males for more than 125 years of the country’s history.” Spalding described the document as “a return to the unifying ideas stated in the Declaration of Independence” and added the following in January. 

It quotes the greatest Americans, black and white, men and women, in devotion to these ideas…. The commission may be abolished, but these principles cannot be. We will all continue to work together to teach and to defend them.

            Once published on the White House website, WhiteHouse.gov., the report has now been removed. However, I feel certain that it has been preserved somewhere by patriots. 

Why Did Biden Disband Trump’s Advisory 1776 Commission?

             The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that rising generations must be taught the history of their nation to know their true identity. By studying history, they can learn the good and bad about their nation, learn from the mistakes of previous generations, improve their decision-making skills and judgment, and teach how to be responsible citizens.

            In September 2020, President Donald Trump formed a commission to promote “patriotic education” to counter the false history curriculum being taught to children and youth.  The 1776 Commission released its report on Monday, January 18, 2020. In the 45-page report, the Commission offered “a definitive chronicle of the American founding” according to sources at the White House. The report also criticized what students in America are being taught about the formation of the United States, the history of slavery, and racial discrimination.

            According to the New York Post, the report said that “States and school districts should reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America’s heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles.” According to the New York Post, the document continued:

Deliberately destructive scholarship shatters the civic bonds that unite all Americans. It silences the discourse essential to a free society by breeding division, distrust, and hatred among citizens. And it is the intellectual force behind so much of the violence in our cities, suppression of free speech in our universities, and defamation of our treasured national statues and symbols.

            The Biden administration did not appreciate the report. He ordered the report to be taken down and disbanded the commission. The new President’s actions will not stop the commission from acting. According to Mike Gonzalez, a member of the commission, the “commissioners intend to continue meeting and fulfilling the charges of our two-year remit. The Heritage Foundation will also continue to host the report, which you can henceforth find here.” Here are a few paragraphs from the Introduction of the report.

In the course of human events there have always been those who deny or reject human freedom, but Americans will never falter in defending the fundamental truths of human liberty proclaimed on July 4, 1776. We will—we must—always hold these truths.

The declared purpose of the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission is to “enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.” This requires a restoration of American education, which can only be grounded on a history of those principles that is “accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling.” And a rediscovery of our shared identity rooted in our founding principles is the path to a renewed American unity and a confident American future.

The Commission’s first responsibility is to produce a report summarizing the principles of the American founding and how those principles have shaped our country. That can only be done by truthfully recounting the aspirations and actions of the men and women who sought to build America as a shining “city on a hill”—an exemplary nation, one that protects the safety and promotes the happiness of its people, as an example to be admired and emulated by nations of the world that wish to steer their government toward greater liberty and justice. The record of our founders’ striving and the nation they built is our shared inheritance and remains a beacon, as Abraham Lincoln said, “not for one people or one time, but for all people for all time.”

Today, however, Americans are deeply divided about the meaning of their country, its history, and how it should be governed. This division is severe enough to call to mind the disagreements between the colonists and King George, and those between the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War. They amount to a dispute over not only the history of our country but also its present purpose and future direction.

The facts of our founding are not partisan. They are a matter of history. Controversies about the meaning of the founding can begin to be resolved by looking at the facts of our nation’s founding. Properly understood, these facts address the concerns and aspirations of Americans of all social classes, income levels, races and religions, regions and walks of life. As well, these facts provide necessary—and wise—cautions against unrealistic hopes and checks against pressing partisan claims or utopian agendas too hard or too far.

            One can only wonder why the new President would object to the commission and its work. It appears that he is adamant to erase “everything Trump” from the nation – even those things that are good and good for the nation. President Trump formed the Advisory 1776 Commission with the declared purpose to “enable the rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.”

            Victor David Hansen, another member of the commission, wrote an article titled “It’s Fake News That the 1776 Commission Report Whitewashes America’s Past.” The following paragraphs are from his report. 

The commission reminded us that the Founders were equally worried about autocracy and chaos. So they drafted checks and balances to protect citizens from both authoritarianism, known so well from the British Crown, and the frenzy of sometimes wild public excess.

The report repeatedly focuses on both the ideals of the American founding and the centuries-long quest to live up to them. It notes the fragility of such a novel experiment in constitutional republicanism, democratic elections, and self-government—especially during late 18th-century era of war and factionalism.

The report does not whitewash the continuance of many injustices after 1776 and 1787—in particular chattel slavery concentrated in the South, and voting reserved only for free males.

            It seems strange that there are people in America who do not want the rising generation to be taught correct history. Yet, many Democrats and other progressives are unwilling to have this commission continue their efforts to make correct history available to be taught. Their unwillingness begs the question, “Why?”