The 1619 Project is a
long-form journalism endeavor developed by
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...
, writers from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', and ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'' which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and the contributions of
Black Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
at the very center of
the United States' national narrative." The first publication stemming from the project was in ''The New York Times Magazine'' of August 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the
first enslaved Africans in the English
colony of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
.
These were also the first Africans in mainland
British America
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...
, though Africans had been in other parts of North America since the 1500s. The project also developed an educational curriculum, supported by the
Pulitzer Center, later accompanied by a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast. On May 4, 2020, the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
board announced that they were awarding the 2020
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary is an award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism "for distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool". It is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are ...
to project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones for her introductory essay.
The 1619 Project has received criticism from some historians, who
question its historical accuracy.
In a letter published in ''The New York Times'' in December 2019, historians
Gordon S. Wood,
James M. McPherson
James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for '' Battle Cry of F ...
,
Sean Wilentz,
Victoria E. Bynum
Victoria Bynum is a historian specializing in the history of the Southern United States. She is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history at Texas State University.
Career
Victoria E. Bynum is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history at ...
, and
James Oakes expressed "strong reservations" about the project and requested factual corrections, accusing the project's creators of putting ideology before historical understanding. The scholars denied the project's claim that
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
was essential to the beginning of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, as colonists wanted to protect their right to own slaves. In response,
Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein (born 1975 in California) is an American writer and magazine editor. He is the editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the author of ''Nothing Happened and Then It Did'', a novelized memoir.
Early life
Silverstein ...
, the editor of ''The New York Times Magazine'', defended its accuracy and declined to issue corrections.
In March 2020, after continued criticism of the project's portrayal of the role of slavery, ''The Times'' issued a "clarification", modifying one of the passages on slavery's role that had sparked controversy.
In September 2020, controversy arose over when the ''Times'' updated the opening text of the project website to remove the phrase "understanding 1619 as our true founding" without accompanying editorial notes. Critics, including
Bret Stephens of the ''Times'', claimed the differences showed that the newspaper was backing away from some of the initiative's more controversial claims.
The ''Times'' defended its practices, with Hannah-Jones emphasizing how most of the project's content has remained unchanged.
The project has also led to responses from politicians. Former
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
United States Senator and future vice president
Kamala Harris expressed praise for the project,
while then-president
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
expressed uncertainty about the project's goals of rehashing select parts of history.
In late 2020, upon learning of a claim that the
California Department of Education
The California Department of Education is an agency within the Government of California that oversees public education.
The department oversees funding and testing, and holds local educational agencies accountable for student achievement. Its st ...
was adding the project to the state curriculum, Trump noted that if true, federal funding would be withheld from the state's schools.
Shortly after, his
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
announced the
1776 Commission
The 1776 Commission, also nicknamed the 1776 Project, was an advisory committee established in September 2020 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to support what he called "patriotic education". The commission, which included no historians spe ...
, whose goal was developing a "patriotic" curriculum.
The commission was terminated by his successor,
Joe Biden, on his first day in office.
Florida governor
Ron DeSantis passed a bill in July 2021 barring the teaching of
critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
, including any materials from the 1619 Project.
Background
![AfricansatJamestown1619](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/AfricansatJamestown1619.jpg)
The 1619 Project was launched in August 2019 to commemorate the 400 anniversary of the arrival of the
first enslaved Africans in
colonial Virginia.
In 1619, a group of "twenty and odd" captive Africans arrived in the Virginia Colony. An English privateer operating under a Dutch
letter of marque, ''
White Lion'', carried 20–30 Africans who had been captured in joint African-Portuguese raids
against the
Kingdom of Ndongo
The Kingdom of Ndongo, formerly known as Angola or Dongo, was an early-modern African state located in what is now Angola.
The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of multiple vassal states to Kongo, though ...
in modern-day
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
, making its landing at
Point Comfort in the English colony of Virginia.
Although the project places this moment in the context of
slavery in the colonial history of the United States, some have taken issue. The first enslaved Africans actually were brought to North America in 1526, and
European enslavement of Native Americans
Slavery among Native Americans in the United States includes slavery by and slavery of Native Americans roughly within what is currently the United States of America.
Tribal territories and the slave trade ranged over present-day borders. ...
has been documented as far back as Columbus in 1493–4. (There is also some evidence for free Africans from Spain among Columbus's crew.)
Project
The project dedicated an issue of the magazine to a re-examination of the legacy of slavery in the United States, at the anniversary of the 1619 arrival of the first enslaved people to Virginia. This framing challenges the idea that American history began with the signing of the
Declaration of Independence in 1776 or with the arrival of the
Pilgrims in 1620.
The project quickly grew into a larger endeavor,
encompassing multiple issues of the magazine, with related materials in other ''Times'' publications, as well as a school curriculum developed in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center.
With support from the Smithsonian, the project recruited a panel of historians to research, develop, and fact-check content.
The project was envisioned with the condition that almost all of the content would be from African-American contributors, deeming the perspective of black writers an essential element of the story to be told.
August 14, 2019, magazine issue
The first edition appeared in a 100-page issue of ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'' on August 14, 2019. It included ten written essays, a photo essay, and a collection of poems and fiction,
with an introduction by editor-in-chief
Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein (born 1975 in California) is an American writer and magazine editor. He is the editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the author of ''Nothing Happened and Then It Did'', a novelized memoir.
Early life
Silverstein ...
,
as follows:
*"America Wasn't a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One", essay by
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...
*"American Capitalism Is Brutal. You Can Trace That to the Plantation", essay by
Matthew Desmond
Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022.
Educ ...
*"How False Beliefs in Physical Racial Difference Still Live in Medicine Today", essay by
Linda Villarosa
Linda Villarosa (born January 9, 1959) is an American author and journalist who is a former executive editor of '' Essence'' magazine. She has worked on health coverage for ''Science Times''. She is also author of several books, and her first nove ...
*"What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery", essay by
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Antoine Bouie (born April 12, 1987) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times''. He was formerly chief political correspondent for ''Slate''. David Uberti, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2019, called Bouie "one of ...
*"Why Is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?", essay by
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Morr ...
*"How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam", essay by
Kevin Kruse
Kevin Michael Kruse (born 1972) is an American historian and a professor of history at Princeton University. His research interests include the political, social, and urban/suburban history of 20th-century America, with a particular focus on the ...
*"Why Doesn't America Have Universal Healthcare? One Word: Race", essay by
Jeneen Interlandi
*"Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery", essay by
Bryan Stevenson
*"The Barbaric History of Sugar in America", essay by
Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Khalil Gibran Muhammad (born April 27, 1972) is an American academic. He is a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and the Radcliffe Institute. He is the former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a Harlem-based branch ...
*"How America's Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder", essay by
Trymaine Lee
Trymaine D. Lee (born September 20, 1978) is an American journalist. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Katrina as part of a team at ''The Times-Picayune'' of New Orleans. From 2006 to 2010, Lee wrote for ''The ...
*"Their Ancestors Were Enslaved by Law. Now They're Lawyers", photo essay by Djeneba Aduayom, with text from
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...
and Wadzanai Mhute
* "A New Literary Timeline of African-American History", a collection of original poems and stories
**
Clint Smith
Clinton James "Snuffy" Smith (December 12, 1913 – May 19, 2009) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and head coach best known for his time spent in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player with the New York Rangers and the Chic ...
on the
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods (first ...
**
Yusef Komunyakaa on
Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks ( – March 5, 1770) was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent, commonly regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre and thus the first American killed in the Amer ...
**
Eve L. Ewing on
Phillis Wheatley
**
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts is an American poet, legal scholar, educator and prison reform advocate. At age 16 he committed an armed carjacking, was prosecuted as an adult, and sentenced to nine years in prison. He started reading and writing poetry dur ...
on the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
**
Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film ''Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Indep ...
on
Gabriel's Rebellion
Gabriel's Rebellion was a planned slave rebellion in the Richmond, Virginia, area in the summer of 1800. Information regarding the revolt, which came to be known as "Gabriel's Rebellion", was leaked prior to its execution, and Gabriel, a blacksmit ...
**
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward (born April 1, 1977) is an American novelist and a Professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel ...
on the
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (, enacted March 2, 1807) is a United States federal law that provided that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest dat ...
**
Tyehimba Jess
Tyehimba Jess (born 1965 in Detroit) is an American poet. His book '' Olio'' received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Biography Early life
Tyehimba Jess was born Jesse S. Goodwin. He grew up in Detroit, where his father worked in that city's ...
on
Black Seminoles
**
Darryl Pinckney
Darryl Pinckney (born 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American novelist, playwright, and essayist.
Early life
Pinckney grew up in a middle-class African-American family in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended local public schools. He wa ...
on the
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...
**
ZZ Packer on the
New Orleans massacre of 1866
The New Orleans Massacre of 1866 occurred on July 30, when a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black Freedmen was set upon by a mob of white rioters, many of whom had been soldiers of the recently defeated Confederate States of America, leading t ...
**
Yaa Gyasi on the
Tuskegee syphilis experiment
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Cente ...
**
Jacqueline Woodson on
Sgt. Isaac Woodard
**
Joshua Bennett
Joshua Bennett is an American author, professor and artist. He is a Professor of Literature and Distinguished Chair of Humanities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bennett's research and teaching interests include 20th and 21st century Af ...
on the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
**
Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage (born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for he ...
on the birth of
hip-hop
**
Kiese Laymon on the
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
’s “
rainbow coalition” speech
**
Clint Smith
Clinton James "Snuffy" Smith (December 12, 1913 – May 19, 2009) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and head coach best known for his time spent in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player with the New York Rangers and the Chic ...
on the
Superdome after Hurricane Katrina
One of the claims made by Hannah-Jones is that the colonists fought the Revolutionary War to preserve slavery. The claim was later softened to "some of" the colonists fought to preserve slavery.
The essays further discuss details of history as well as modern American society, such as traffic jams and the American affinity for sugar, and their connections to slavery and segregation.
Matthew Desmond
Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022.
Educ ...
's essay argues that slavery has shaped modern capitalism and workplace norms.
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Antoine Bouie (born April 12, 1987) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times''. He was formerly chief political correspondent for ''Slate''. David Uberti, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2019, called Bouie "one of ...
's essay draws parallels between pro-slavery politics and the modern right-wing politics.
[ Bouie argues that the United States still has not let go of the assumption that some people inherently deserve more power than others.]
Accompanying material and activities
The magazine issue was accompanied by a special section in the Sunday newspaper, in partnership with the Smithsonian, examining the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade, written by Mary Elliott and Jazmine Hughes
Jazmine Hughes (born October 25, 1991) is an American writer and editor. She is currently a story editor at ''The New York Times Magazine''. Previously she served as contributing editor of The Hairpin. Her work has also appeared in ''The New York ...
. Beginning on August 20, a multi-episode audio series titled "1619" began,[ published by ''The Daily'', the morning news podcast of the ''Times''.] The Sunday sports section had an essay about slavery's impact on professional sports in the United States: "Is Slavery's Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sports?" The ''Times'' plans to take the project to schools, with the ''1619 Project Curriculum'' developed in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center. Hundreds of thousands of extra copies of the magazine issue were printed for distribution to schools, museums and libraries.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has made available free online lesson plans, is collecting further lesson plans from teachers, and helps arrange for speakers to visit classes. The Center considers most of the lessons usable by all grades from elementary school through college.
In November 2021, Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
's One World imprint published the anthology '' The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story''. It is a book-length expansion of the project's essays. The book was created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and ''The New York Times Magazine'', and is edited by Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman and Jake Silverstein.
Reception
Historical accuracy
In an essay for ''The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', historian Sean Wilentz accused the project of cynicism for its portrayal of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, who Wilentz wrote is "rendered as a white supremacist."
In a December 2019 letter published in ''The New York Times'', the historians Wood, McPherson, Wilentz, Bynum, and Oakes expressed "strong reservations" about the project and requested factual corrections, accusing the authors of a "displacement of historical understanding by ideology." The letter disputed the claim, made in Hannah-Jones' introductory essay, that "one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery." The ''Times'' published the letter along with a rebuttal from the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein (born 1975 in California) is an American writer and magazine editor. He is the editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the author of ''Nothing Happened and Then It Did'', a novelized memoir.
Early life
Silverstein ...
, who defended the accuracy of the 1619 Project and declined to issue corrections. Wood responded in a letter, "I don't know of any colonist who said that they wanted independence in order to preserve their slaves... No colonist expressed alarm that the mother country was out to abolish slavery in 1776." In an article in ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Wilentz responded to Silverstein, writing, "No effort to educate the public in order to advance social justice can afford to dispense with a respect for basic facts", and disputing the accuracy of Silverstein's defense of the project.
Also in December 2019, twelve scholars and political scientists specializing in the American Civil War sent a letter to the ''Times'' saying that "The 1619 Project offers a historically-limited view of slavery." While agreeing to the importance of examining American slavery, they objected to what they described as the portrayal of slavery as a uniquely American phenomenon, to construing slavery as a capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
venture, and to presenting out-of-context quotes of a conversation between Abraham Lincoln and "five esteemed free black men." The following month, ''Times'' editor Jake Silverstein replied with a rebuttal.
In January 2020, historian Dr. Susan Parker, who specializes in the studies of Colonial United States
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
at Flagler College, noted that slavery existed before any of the 13 Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centuri ...
. She wrote in an editorial in ''The St. Augustine Record
''The St. Augustine Record'' is a daily morning newspaper published in St. Augustine, Florida. The newspaper was founded in 1894 and is owned by Gannett as of November 2019.
During the 1920s the Record Company, as it was then named, publishe ...
'' that "The settlement known as San Miguel de Gualdape lasted for about six weeks from late September 1526 to the middle of November. Historian Paul Hoffman writes that the slaves at San Miguel rebelled and set fire to some homes of the Spaniards." Writing in ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'', several historians—among them Parker, archaeologist Kathleen A. Deagan
Kathleen A. Deagan is an American archaeologist who primarily focuses on excavations in Florida and the Caribbean. Known for her historic archaeology which uncovered the colonial past of '' La Florida'', and work in St. Augustine, she has receive ...
also of Flagler, and civil rights activist and historian David Nolan David Nolan may refer to:
* David Nolan (politician) (1943–2010), co-founder of the United States Libertarian Party
* David Nolan (American author)
David Nolan is an American author, civil rights activist, and historian.
Biography
Nolan was b ...
—all agreed that slavery was present decades before the year 1619. According to Deagan, people have "spent their careers trying to correct the erroneous belief" in such a narrative, with Nolan claiming that in ignoring the earlier settlement, the authors were "robbing black history."
In March 2020, historian Leslie M. Harris, who had been consulted for the project, wrote in ''Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' that she had warned that the idea that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery was inaccurate, and that the ''Times'' made avoidable mistakes, but that the project was "a much-needed corrective to the blindly celebratory histories." Hannah-Jones has also said that she stands by the claim that slavery helped fuel the revolution, though she concedes she might have phrased it too strongly in her essay, in a way that could give readers the impression that the support for slavery was universal. On March 11, 2020, Silverstein authored an "update" in the form of a "clarification" on the ''Times'' website, correcting Hannah-Jones's essay to state that "protecting slavery was a primary motivation for ''some'' of the colonists." This "clarification" was reportedly prompted by a private warning to Silverstein by Harvard classicist and political scientist Danielle Allen
Danielle Susan Allen (born November 3, 1971) is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also the Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard in 2015, Allen ...
that she might go public with criticism if the passage on the revolution were not corrected.
Response
In September 2020, lead writer Nikole Hannah-Jones criticized conservatives for their depiction of the project because it "does not argue that 1619 is our true founding." ''Atlantic'' writer Conor Friedersdorf
Conor Renier Friedersdorf is an American journalist and a staff writer at ''The Atlantic'', known for his civil libertarian perspectives.
Early life and career
He attended Pomona College as an undergraduate, and attended the journalism school at ...
responded on Twitter by citing statements from Hannah-Jones that 1619 was the nation's true founding. Critics cited by ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', such as Quillette magazine, argued that this showed that the ''Times'' was quietly revising its position without acknowledgement of the original mischaracterization. The conservative National Association of Scholars
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American non-profit politically conservative advocacy organization, with a particular interest in education. It opposes a perceived political correctness on college campuses and supports a return ...
published a letter asking for the revocation of the project's Pulitzer Prize.
In an opinion column in the ''New York Times'', Bret Stephens said that Hannah-Jones had said the argument about dating the founding to 1619 was self-evidently metaphorical, but said "these were not minor points. The deleted assertions went to the core of the project's most controversial goal, 'to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year, and argued, "The question of journalistic practices, however, raises deeper doubts about the 1619 Project’s core premises." This column led to tension within the ''Times'', and prompted statements by ''Times'' executive editor Dean Baquet, publisher A. G. Sulzberger
Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (born August 5, 1980) is an American journalist serving as chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of its flagship newspaper, ''The New York Times''.
Early life and education
Sulzberger was born in Washingt ...
and ''New York Times Magazine'' editor Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein (born 1975 in California) is an American writer and magazine editor. He is the editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the author of ''Nothing Happened and Then It Did'', a novelized memoir.
Early life
Silverstein ...
in support of the 1619 Project. Responding to criticism, Hannah-Jones wrote on Twitter, "Those who've wanted to act as if tweets/discussions about the project hold more weight than the actual words of the project cannot be taken in good faith", and that "Those who point to edits of digital blurbs but ignore the unchanged text of the actual project cannot be taken in good faith."
Motivations for the American Revolution
Significant controversy has centered on the project's claim that "one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery." According to Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
professor Sean Wilentz, the claim that there was a "perceptible British threat to American slavery in 1776" is an ahistorical assertion, noting that the British abolitionist movement was practically non-existent in 1776. Wilentz also criticized the project's mentioning the ''Somerset v Stewart
''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Somersett's case'', ''v. XX Sommersett v Steuart and the Mansfield Judgment)'' is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on En ...
'' case to support its argument, since that legal decision concerned slavery in England, with no effect in the American colonies. Wilentz wrote that the project's claims that "if the Revolution had caused the ending of the slave trade, this would have upended the economy of the colonies, in both the North and the South" did not consider the numerous attempts to outlaw—or impose prohibitive duties on—the slave trade by several colonies from 1769 to 1774. The historians critical of the project have said that many of America's Founding Fathers, such as John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, James Otis, and Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, opposed slavery. They also said that every state north of Maryland took steps to abolish slavery after the revolution.
In defense of the project, Silverstein said that the ''Somerset'' case caused a "sensation" in American reports. But Wilentz countered that the decision was reported by only six newspapers in the southern colonies, and the tone of the coverage was indifferent. Also at issue was the significance of Dunmore's Proclamation as cited by Silverstein, with Wilentz asserting that the event was a response to rebellion rather than a cause; he also questioned the reliance on a quotation by Edward Rutledge
Edward Rutledge (November 23, 1749 – January 23, 1800) was an American Founding Father and politician who signed the Continental Association and was the youngest signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He later served as the 39th gover ...
as interpreted by Jill Lepore
Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American ...
. Harris has also pointed to Dunmore's Proclamation as a spur to the disruption of slavery by the revolutionary side as well.
Journalistic reaction
The 1619 Project received positive reviews by Alexandria Neason in the ''Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'' and by Ellen McGirt in ''Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'' magazine, which declared the project "wide-reaching and collaborative, unflinching, and insightful" and a "dramatic and necessary corrective to the fundamental lie of the American origin story."
Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Michael Sullivan (born 10 August 1963) is a British-American author, editor, and blogger. Sullivan is a political commentator, a former editor of ''The New Republic'', and the author or editor of six books. He started a political blog, ' ...
critiqued the project as an important perspective that needed to be heard but that was presented in a biased way under the guise of objectivity. Writing in ''The Washington Post'', George Will called the project "malicious" and "historically illiterate." Writing in ''The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
'', Damon Linker found the 1619 Project's treatment of history "sensationalistic, reductionistic, and tendentious." Timothy Sandefur deemed the project's goal as worthy, but observed that the articles persistently went wrong trying to connect everything with slavery. In '' National Review'', Phillip W. Magness wrote that the project provides a distorted economic history borrowed from "bad scholarship" of the ''New History of Capitalism'' (NHC), and Rich Lowry
Richard Lowry (; born August 22, 1968) is an American writer who is the former editor and now editor-in-chief of ''National Review'', an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative news and opinion magazine. Lowry became editor of ''N ...
wrote that Hannah-Jones' lead essay leaves out unwelcome facts about slavery, smears the Revolution
A revolution is a drastic political change that usually occurs relatively quickly. For revolutions which affect society, culture, and technology more than political systems, see social revolution.
Revolution may also refer to:
Aviation
*Warner ...
, distorts the Constitution, and misrepresents the founding era and Lincoln. Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for ''The New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ...
said that the 1619 Project reveals that ''The New York Times'' "does not care about the truth" and instead "hires and promotes its reporters and editors on woke - race and gender - criteria rather than proven reporting excellence."
Political reaction
The project received varied reactions from political figures. Democratic Senator Kamala Harris praised it in a tweet, stating "The #1619Project is a powerful and necessary reckoning of our history. We cannot understand and address the problems of today without speaking truth about how we got here."
High-profile conservatives criticized it. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...
called it "brainwashing" and "propaganda," later writing an opinion piece characterizing it as "left-wing propaganda masquerading as 'the truth. Republican Senator Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from ...
also equated it with propaganda. President Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, in an interview on ''Fox News'' with Chris Wallace, said, I just look at—I look at school. I watch, I read, look at the stuff. Now they want to change—1492, Columbus discovered America. You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that's what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don't even know.
In July 2020, Republican Senator Tom Cotton
Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of R ...
of Arkansas proposed the "Saving American History Act of 2020", prohibiting K-12 schools from using federal funds to teach curriculum related to the 1619 Project, and make schools that did ineligible for federal professional-development grants. Cotton added that "The 1619 Project is a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying the true principles on which it was founded." On September 6, 2020, Trump responded on Twitter to a claim that the State of California was adding the 1619 Project to the state's public school curriculum. Trump stated that the Department of Education was investigating the matter and, if the aforementioned claim was found true, federal funding would be withheld from California public schools. On September 17, Trump announced the 1776 Commission
The 1776 Commission, also nicknamed the 1776 Project, was an advisory committee established in September 2020 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to support what he called "patriotic education". The commission, which included no historians spe ...
to develop a "patriotic" curriculum.
In October 2020, the National Association of Scholars
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American non-profit politically conservative advocacy organization, with a particular interest in education. It opposes a perceived political correctness on college campuses and supports a return ...
, a conservative advocacy group, published an open letter with 21 signatories calling on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind Hannah-Jones' prize because of the project's claim that "protecting the institution of slavery was a primary motive for the American Revolution, a claim for which there is simply no evidence."
In November 2020, President Trump established the 1776 Commission by executive order, organizing 18 conservative leaders to generate an opposing response to the 1619 Project. The 1776 Report, released on January 18, 2021, was widely criticized for factual errors, incomplete or missing citations, and lack of academic rigor. The commission was terminated by President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.
On April 30, 2021, U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell McConnell III (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky and the Senate minority leader since 2021. Currently in his seventh term, McConne ...
sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona protesting the Department of Education's proposal to modify federal grants to states and local schools to "incentivize them to use tools like the 1619 Project in their classrooms" and demanding that the proposal be abandoned. McConnell's letter charged that the programs were being modified "away from their intended purposes toward a politicized and divisive agenda" and said that "Actual, trained, credentialed historians with diverse political views have debunked the project's many factual and historical errors."
In July 2021, Florida prohibited the teaching of critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
in schools, which includes a specific prohibition on use of materials from the 1619 Project.
The World Socialist Web Site criticized what its editors consider the ''Times'' reactionary, politically motivated "falsification of history" that wrongly centers on racial rather than class conflict.
Awards
Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...
was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary is an award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism "for distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool". It is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are ...
for her essay. The award cited her "sweeping, provocative and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America's story, prompting public conversation about the nation's founding and evolution."
In October 2020, New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute named the 1619 Project one of the ten greatest works of journalism in the 2010–2019 decade.
See also
* '' Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019'' (2021)
* ''500 Years Later
''500 Years Later'' ( ') is a 2005 independent documentary film directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah and written by M. K. Asante, Jr. It has won five international film festival awards in the category of Best Documentary, including the UNESCO "Break ...
'' (2005)
* Jamestown 2007
Jamestown 2007 is the name of the organization which planned the events commemorating the 400th anniversary (quadricentennial) of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in what is now the Un ...
* 1776 Unites
1776 Unites is a project launched by civil rights activist Robert Woodson that seeks to unite African-Americans to advocate principles like entrepreneurship, self-determination, and mutual social support through a series of essays published on ...
* Critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
* Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
* Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
* 1836 Project
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Print edition
(2019 August). ''The New York Times Magazine''.
Podcast series
(2019 August–October).
*
The 1619 Project Sparks Dialogue and Reflection in Schools Nationwide
" Pulitzer Center (2019 December 20).
*
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: 2019 Annual Report
" Pulitzer Center (2020).
{{DEFAULTSORT:1619 Project, The
1619 in the Thirteen Colonies
2019 essays
2019 poems
2019 short stories
2019 introductions
Magazine articles
Historical revisionism
The New York Times
Slavery in the British Empire
Historiography of the United States
African-American-related controversies
Virginia historical anniversaries
Race-related controversies in literature