What an embarrassment it is for Simpson College to award the George Washington Carver Medal to Nikole Hannah-Jones as part of their “celebration” of the 250th Anniversary of our founding. They also claim she supposedly represents the legacy of George Washington Carver, who is probably spinning in his grave.
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Her 1619 Project had multiple errors including the absurd proposition, now quietly erased, that the landing of African slaves in America in 1619, and not the Declaration of Independence we are celebrating, marks our “true founding”. Other 1619 fantasies included the American Revolution being fought to preserve slavery (when the British didn’t abolish slavery in their American possessions until 50 years after the Revolution) and George Washington only accepting command of the American army after Lord Dunmore announced that the slaves (of Revolutionaries only) would be freed if they fought for the British. Dunmore didn’t declare this policy until months after Washington took command. But why let the facts disrupt a flawed theory?
Hannah-Jones also supports paying “reparations” to Black people for slavery. As conservative commentator Larry Elder has noted, reparations would take money from people who have never been slaveholders and give it to people who have never been slaves.
As for Hannah-Jones’ support of reparations reflecting the legacy of George Washington Carver, who had actually been a slave, I would offer the following quote: “I would never allow anyone to give me money no difference how badly I needed it. I literally wanted to earn my living.” George Washington Carver.
Donald W. Bohlken is a retired Iowa Administrative Law Judge and Attorney who lives in Indianola
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