Black Americans’ freedom struggles have been the nation’s defining but unwritten tradition.

Evidence

The efforts of Black Americans to seek freedom through resistance and rebellion against violations of their rights have always been one of this nation’s defining traditions. But the country has rarely seen it that way, because for Black Americans, the freedom struggle has been a centuries-long fight against their own fellow Americans and against the very government intended to uphold the rights of its citizens. Though we are seldom taught this fact, time after time throughout our history, the most ardent, courageous, and consistent freedom fighters within this country have been Black Americans. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1310

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s framing of origin dating determining deviation vs design: the reframing claim that Black resistance is central rather than peripheral to American identity. — connects to: American literature’s defining traits are responses to an unacknowledged black presence. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 73