Differences
Similarities
Hannah- Jones writes from a personal experience, whereas, Lee is reporting
both authors demonstrates the contributions of Black Americans
Lee writes about the wealth gap between Black Americans and White Americans and Hannah- Jones writes about how slaves contributed to making America wealthy and great.
They both write about the unfair treatment (abuse) of Black Americans
They both discuss how Black people were constantly stolen from
Hannah-Jones writes about why Black Americans should be proud to be American, while Lee writes about the constant setbacks that Black Americans have experienced.
They both discuss how the promises made by America were not followed through
Hannah- Jones concludes her writing in triumph, whereas, Lee concludes his in "defeat"
Hannah-Jones discuss how Black people protest for their rights, where as, Lee discuss how black people still getting the short end of the stick.
They both write about how America isn't that great after all
"The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘‘all men are created equal’’ and ‘‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’’ But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst. ‘‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’’ did not apply to fully one-fifth of the country." - Hannah-Jones
"I didn’t understand his patriotism. It deeply embarrassed me". - Hannah- Jones
click to edit
"My father...knew what it would take me years to understand: that the year 1619 is as important to the American story as 1776. That black Americans, as much as those men cast in alabaster in the nation’s capital, are this nation’s true ‘‘founding fathers.’’And that no people has a greater claim to that flag than us."- Hannah-Jones
" Seventy years later, the effects of Bolling’s murder are still felt by his children and their children. “There was no inheritance, nothing for my father to pass down, because it was all taken away,” says Josephine Bolling McCall, the only one of Bolling’s children to get a college degree. Of the seven siblings, those with more education fared best; the men struggled most, primarily working as low-paid laborers. Of Elmore and Bertha Mae’s 25 grandchildren, only six graduated from college; of those, two are McCall’s children. The rest are unemployed or underemployed. They have never known anything like the prosperity of their grandparents." - Lee
"Through centuries of black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals. And not only for ourselves — black rights struggles paved the way for every other rights struggle, including women’s and gay rights, immigrant and disability rights." -Hannah-Jones
“The major way in which people have an opportunity to accumulate wealth is contingent on the wealth positions of their parents and their grandparents,” Darity says. “To the extent that blacks have the capacity to accumulate wealth, we have not had the ability to transfer the same kinds of resources across generations.” - Lee
"When Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson effectively rescinded Sherman’s order by pardoning white plantation owners and returning to them the land on which 40,000 or so black families had settled. “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men,” Johnson declared in 1866".- Lee
click to edit
"Profits from black people’s stolen labor helped the young nation pay off its war debts and financed some of our most prestigious universities. It was the relentless buying, selling, insuring and financing of their bodies and the products of their labor that made Wall Street a thriving banking, insurance and trading sector and New York City the financial capital of the world." - Hannah -Jones
"The Freedmen’s Bureau, always meant to be temporary, was dismantled in 1872. More than 60,000 black people deposited more than $1 million into the Freedman’s Savings Bank, but its all-white trustees began issuing speculative loans to white investors and corporations, and when it failed in 1874, many black depositors lost much of their savings" Lee.
click to edit