Wikipedia

The 1619 Project

2019 project by the New York Times on the history of slavery

The 1619 Project is a controversial project in the United States created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. It is meant to change the country's history by talking about the effects of slavery. The project said that the United States was actually founded in 1619 when the first slaves arrived to the country.[1]

The project was first published in August 2019 for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the Virginia colony.[2]

The project was very controversial and had negative comments from many historians.[3]

Background

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A 1901 illustration of the landing of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619. The White Lion is seen anchored in the background.
Further information: Slavery in the colonial history of the United States
Further information: Slavery in the United States

The 1619 Project began in August 2019 to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the British colony of Virginia. In 1619, about 20 Africans were brought to Virginia by an English ship called the White Lion.[4] These people had been captured during attacks on the Kingdom of Ndongo, which is in today’s Angola. The ship landed at a place called Point Comfort in Virginia.[5]

The project focuses on this event as an important part of the history of slavery in what would become the United States.[6] However, some people have criticized this view. They point out that enslaved Africans were brought to parts of North America earlier, in 1526,[7] and that Europeans had also enslaved Native Americans starting in the late 1400s, around the time of Columbus.

Project

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The 1619 Project published a special issue of a magazine to look closely at how slavery has affected America. This was done to remember the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619. The project challenged the common belief that American history began in 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, or in 1620, when the Pilgrims arrived.[8]

The project quickly became bigger. It included more magazine issues,[5] articles in other New York Times publications, and a school curriculum made with help from the Pulitzer Center.[5] The Smithsonian Institution also supported the project by helping to form a group of historians to research and fact-check the information.[9] Most of the writing in the project was done by African-American authors, because the project felt it was important for Black voices to lead the telling of this history.[10]

August 18, 2019, magazine issue

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The first version of the 1619 Project was published in a 100-page issue of The New York Times Magazine on August 18, 2019. It featured ten written essays, a photo story, and a group of poems and short stories.[11] The issue began with an introduction written by the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jake Silverstein.[12][13] which are:

Accompanying material and activities

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The magazine issue was released along with a special section in the Sunday newspaper. This section, made with help from the Smithsonian, looked at the start of the transatlantic slave trade and was written by Mary Elliott and Jazmine Hughes. Starting on August 20, a podcast series called 1619 began,[14] produced by The Daily, the New York Times’ morning news podcast.[5]

The Sunday sports section also included an essay discussing how slavery’s legacy affects power and control in professional sports, titled “Is Slavery's Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sports?”[5][15]

The New York Times planned to bring the project into schools through a 1619 Project Curriculum, created with the Pulitzer Center. They printed hundreds of thousands of extra copies of the magazine to share with schools, museums, and libraries.[16]

The Pulitzer Center also offers free lesson plans online, collects lesson ideas from teachers, and helps arrange guest speakers for classrooms.[17] Most of these lessons can be used with students from elementary school all the way to college.[18]

Reception

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Historical accuracy

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Historian Sean Wilentz criticized the 1619 Project in an essay for The New York Review of Books. He said it had a negative and unfair view of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and President Abraham Lincoln, who he felt was wrongly portrayed as a white supremacist.[19]

In December 2019, Wilentz and four other well-known historians—Gordon S. Wood, James M. McPherson, Victoria Bynum, and James Oakes—wrote a letter to The New York Times.They said they had serious concerns about the project and asked for corrections. They believed the authors were replacing historical facts with personal beliefs. One point they strongly disagreed with was the claim in Nikole Hannah-Jones’ essay that protecting slavery was a major reason the American colonists wanted independence from Britain.

The New York Times published their letter, along with a response from Jake Silverstein,[20][21] the magazine’s editor-in-chief. Silverstein defended the project’s accuracy and refused to make corrections. Gordon Wood replied that he didn’t know of any colonist who said they wanted independence to keep slavery and that no one in 1776 said Britain was trying to end slavery.[22][23]

Later, in The Atlantic, Wilentz again criticized Silverstein’s defense of the project, saying that fighting for social justice still requires sticking to the facts.[24]

Response

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In September 2020, Nikole Hannah-Jones said conservatives were wrong in how they described the 1619 Project, saying it never claimed that the year 1619 was the true founding of the United States.[25] However, writer Conor Friedersdorf from The Atlantic pointed out that she had made past statements saying that 1619 was the nation's true founding.[25]

Some critics, including writers from Quillette magazine (quoted by The Washington Post), said this meant The New York Times was quietly changing its message without admitting it had been wrong at first.[25] A conservative group called the National Association of Scholars even sent a letter asking that the Pulitzer Prize given to the project be taken back.[25][26]

Motivations for the American Revolution

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A major controversy around the 1619 Project is its claim that one of the main reasons the American colonists wanted independence from Britain was to protect slavery.

Professor Sean Wilentz from Princeton University said this idea is not supported by history. He explained that in 1776, there was no real threat from Britain to end slavery, because the British abolitionist movement had barely started.[27] He also disagreed with the project's use of the Somerset v Stewart court case to support its argument, pointing out that the ruling only applied to England and had no impact in the American colonies.[27]

Wilentz also argued that the claim about the Revolution stopping the slave trade—and harming the colonies’ economy—ignored the fact that some colonies had already tried to limit or ban the slave trade between 1769 and 1774.[27]

Historians who criticized the project also said that many America's Founding Fathers, like John Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Paine, spoke out against slavery. They added that after the American Revolution, every state north of Maryland began to take action to end slavery.[21]

Journalistic reactions

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The 1619 Project got good reviews from writers like Alexandria Neason in the Columbia Journalism Review[5] and Ellen McGirt in Fortune magazine. Fortune called the project “broad and cooperative, honest, and thoughtful,” and said it was an important and powerful way to challenge the false story often told about how America began.[13]

Andrew Sullivan said the 1619 Project shared an important point of view, but he felt it was biased and claimed to be neutral when it wasn’t.[28] George Will, writing in The Washington Post, called the project harmful and said it got history wrong.[29] Damon Linker in The Week said the project’s version of history was dramatic, overly simple, and one-sided.[30] Timothy Sandefur agreed the project’s goal was good but thought it tried too hard to link everything to slavery, which made it inaccurate.[31] Phillip W. Magness, writing in National Review, said the economic history in the project was misleading and based on poor research.[32] Rich Lowry also criticized the project’s main essay, saying it ignored facts, misrepresented the American Revolution and Constitution, and gave a false picture of history.[33] Victor Davis Hanson said the project showed that The New York Times cared more about promoting political views than telling the truth.[29]

In the May 2022 issue of the libertarian magazine Reason, reporter Phillip W. Magness called the 1619 Project "junk history." He compared Nikole Hannah-Jones' work to earlier writings about slavery by well-known African Americans like Zora Neale Hurston. Magness said:

Hurston did not aim to bury an ugly past but to search for historical understanding. Her 1927 interview with Cudjoe Lewis, among the last living survivors of the 1860 voyage of the slave ship Clotilda, contains an invaluable eyewitness account of the middle passage as told by one of its victims. Yet Hurston saw only absurdity in trying to find justice by bludgeoning the past for its sins. "While I have a handkerchief over my eyes crying over the landing of the first slaves in 1619," she continued, "I might miss something swell that is going on in" the present day.[34]

Political reactions

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The project got different reactions from political leaders. At the time, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris praised it on Twitter, saying, “The #1619Project is a powerful and necessary reckoning of our history. We can’t fix today’s problems without being honest about our past.”[10]

On the other hand, many well-known conservatives criticized it. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called it “brainwashing” and “propaganda,”[10] later writing that it was “left-wing propaganda pretending to be the truth.”[35] Republican Senator Ted Cruz also said it was propaganda.[14] President Donald Trump, during a Fox News interview 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.[36]

In July 2020, Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas introduced the "Saving American History Act of 2020." This bill aimed to stop K–12 schools from using federal money to teach lessons based on the 1619 Project. It also said schools that used the project couldn’t get federal training grants for teachers. Cotton said the 1619 Project gives a "racially divisive and incorrect" version of history and that it goes against the true values the U.S. was built on.[37]

On September 6, 2020, President Trump reacted on Twitter to a claim that California was adding the 1619 Project to its school curriculum. He said the Department of Education was looking into it and warned that if the claim was true, federal funding might be cut from California public schools.[38][39][40]

Later, on September 17, Trump announced the creation of the 1776 Commission to promote a "patriotic" version of American history in schools.[41][42]

In October 2020, the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group, released a public letter signed by 21 people asking the Pulitzer Prize Board to take back Nikole Hannah-Jones' award. They said the project falsely claimed that one main reason for the American Revolution was to protect slavery, a claim they argued had no evidence.[26][25]

In November 2020, President Trump created the 1776 Commission through an executive order. He selected 18 conservative leaders to create a response to the 1619 Project.[43] The commission released its report on January 18, 2021, but it was heavily criticized for being inaccurate, poorly researched, and lacking proper sources.[44] President Joe Biden shut down the commission on January 20, 2021, his first day in office.[45]

On April 30, 2021, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, objecting to a plan to change federal education grants.[46] The change would encourage schools to use materials like the 1619 Project. McConnell said the plan was politically biased and argued that historians from different political backgrounds had already proven the project’s claims wrong.

The World Socialist Web Site also criticized the 1619 Project, saying it gave a misleading version of history by focusing too much on race instead of class struggle.[22][47]

Awards

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Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her essay.[48][49] The award praised her powerful and personal writing in the 1619 Project, which aims to show how slavery is a central part of America's history. The project helped spark national conversations about how the country began and developed.[50]

In October 2020, New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute named the 1619 Project one of the top ten pieces of journalism from 2010 to 2019.[51]

Bans

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Near the end of his first term, President Donald Trump said he wanted to ban the 1619 Project from school curriculums.[52] He claimed it made students "hate their own country." Republican lawmakers agreed with him and also tried to stop the project from being taught in schools.[52][53]

Several bills were introduced to ban the project, including one by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton at the national level. State lawmakers Representative Mark Lowery in Arkansas, Skyler Wheeler in Iowa, and Senator Angela Burks Hill in Mississippi also introduced similar bills.[52][54] By late summer 2021, lawmakers in 27 states had proposed bills similar to Cotton's, aiming to block the 1619 Project from classrooms.[55]

While Ron DeSantis was governor, Florida banned the teaching of the 1619 Project in public schools. First, in 2021, the Florida State Board of Education passed a rule that banned critical race theory.[56] Then in 2022, the Stop WOKE Act was passed, which also blocked the 1619 Project from being taught.[57][58]

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References

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  1. ↑ Project, The 1619 (2019-08-14). "The 1619 Project". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-07.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Silverstein, Jake (December 20, 2019). "Why We Published The 1619 Project". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  3. ↑ Kaufman, Elliot (16 December 2019). "The '1619 Project' Gets Schooled - WSJ". Wall Street Journal.
  4. ↑ Painter, Nell Irvin (2006). Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-19-513755-8. OCLC 57722517.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Neason, Alexandria (August 15, 2019). "The 1619 Project and the stories we tell about slavery". Columbia Journalism Review. New York City: Columbia University Press. Archived from the original on August 16, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  6. ↑ "1619: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo". USA Today. February 8, 2019.
  7. ↑ Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara (August 23, 2019). "Perspective - Everyone is talking about 1619. But that's not actually when slavery in America started". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  8. ↑ Joshua, Zeitz (November 25, 2020). "How America Outgrew the Pilgrims". Politico. The New York Times' 1619 Project excited tremendous controversy because it challenged established narratives that date the founding of America's political development and character to 1620 or 1776.
  9. ↑ Tharoor, Ishaan (August 20, 2019). "The 1619 Project and the far-right fear of history". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Charles, J. Brian (August 19, 2019). "Why conservatives are bothered by the New York Times' project on slavery". Vox. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  11. ↑ Geraghty, Jim (August 20, 2019). "What The 1619 Project Leaves Out". National Review. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  12. ↑ "The 1619 Project". The New York Times Magazine. August 14, 2019. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 McGirt, Ellen (August 14, 2019). "The New York Times Launches the 1619 Project: raceAhead". Fortune. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Cite error: The named reference CNN was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  15. ↑ Streeter, Kurt (July 18, 2019). "Is Slavery's Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sports?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  16. ↑ Gyarkye, Lovia (August 18, 2019). "How the 1619 Project Came Together". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 19, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  17. ↑ "The 1619 Project Curriculum". Pulitzer Center. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Pulitzer Center Lesson Builder". Pulitzer Center. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  19. ↑ Wilentz, Sean (November 19, 2019). "American Slavery and 'the Relentless Unforeseen'". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  20. ↑ Cite error: The named reference NYT-response was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Serwer, Adam (December 23, 2019). "The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Friedersdorf, Conor (January 6, 2020). "1776 Honors America's Diversity in a Way 1619 Does Not". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Historian Gordon Wood responds to the New York Times' defense of the 1619 Project". World Socialist Web Site. December 24, 2019. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  24. ↑ Wilentz, Sean (January 22, 2020). "A Matter of Facts". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 30, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 Ellison, Sarah (October 13, 2020). "How the 1619 Project took over 2020". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Wood, Peter (October 6, 2020). "Pulitzer Board Must Revoke Nikole Hannah-Jones' Prize". www.nas.org. Archived from the original on October 15, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Wilentz, Sean (January 22, 2020). "A Matter of Facts". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 30, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  28. ↑ Sullivan, Andrew (September 13, 2019). "The New York Times Has Abandoned Liberalism for Activism". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Koberg, Kelsey (March 23, 2022). "The New York Times' journey from paper of record to home of the 1619 Project". Fox News. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  30. ↑ "The New York Times surrenders to the left on race". The Week. August 20, 2019. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  31. ↑ Sandefur, Timothy (August 21, 2019). "The Founders Were Flawed. The Nation Is Imperfect. The Constitution Is Still a 'Glorious Liberty Document.'". Reason. Archived from the original on March 14, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  32. ↑ Magness, Phillip W. (August 26, 2019). "How the 1619 Project Rehabilitates the 'King Cotton' Thesis". National Review. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  33. ↑ Lowry, Rich (October 7, 2019). "The Flagrant Distortions and Subtle Lies of the '1619 Project'". National Review. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  34. ↑ Magness, Phillip W. (March 29, 2022). "The 1619 Project Unrepentantly Pushes Junk History". Reason. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  35. ↑ Gingrich, Newt (September 27, 2019). "Did Slavery Really Define America for All Time?". Newsweek. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  36. ↑ Foran, Clare (July 24, 2020). "GOP Sen. Tom Cotton pitches bill to prohibit use of federal funds to teach 1619 Project". CNN. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  37. ↑ "Cotton Bill to Defund 1619 Project Curriculum". Tom Cotton: Arkansas Senator. July 23, 2020. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  38. ↑ Liptak, Kevin (September 6, 2020). "Trump says Department of Education will investigate use of 1619 Project in schools". CNN. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  39. ↑ Blitzer, Ronn (September 6, 2020). "Trump warns schools teaching 1619 Project 'will not be funded'". Fox News. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  40. ↑ Donald J. Trump [@realDonaldTrump] (September 6, 2020). "Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 7, 2020 – via Twitter.
  41. ↑ Mason, Jeff (September 17, 2020). "Trump plans panel to promote 'patriotic education' in appeal to conservative base". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  42. ↑ "Trump order seeks to ban military, government contractors from some diversity training". Reuters. September 23, 2020. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  43. ↑ "Executive Order on Establishing the President's Advisory 1776 Commission | The White House". whitehouse.gov. January 1, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021 – via National Archives.
  44. ↑ Johnson, Martin (January 19, 2021). "Trump's '1776 Report' released on MLK Day receives heavy backlash". The Hill. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  45. ↑ Shear, Michael D. (January 20, 2021). "On Day 1, Biden Moves to Undo Trump's Legacy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  46. ↑ Nobles, Ryan (April 30, 2021). "McConnell sends letter to Education secretary demanding removal of the 1619 Project from federal grant programs". CNN. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  47. ↑ Niemuth, Niles; Mackaman, Tom; North, David (September 6, 2019). "The New York Times's 1619 Project: A racialist falsification of American and world history". World Socialist Web Site. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  48. ↑ Cite error: The named reference :0 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  49. ↑ "Commentary". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  50. ↑ "Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times". The Pulitzer Prizes. Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  51. ↑ Sullivan, Margaret. "Perspective | Here's a list of the 10 greatest works of journalism of the past 10 years. Care to argue about it?". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on October 15, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 Schwartz, Sarah (February 3, 2021). "Lawmakers Push to Ban '1619 Project' From Schools". Education Week. ISSN 0277-4232. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  53. ↑ Gabriel, Trip; Goldstein, Dana (June 1, 2021). "Disputing Racism's Reach, Republicans Rattle American Schools". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  54. ↑ Strauss, Valerie. "Perspective | Why Republican efforts to ban the 1619 Project from classrooms are so misguided". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  55. ↑ Silverstein, Jake (November 9, 2021). "The 1619 Project and the Long Battle Over U.S. History". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  56. ↑ Asmelash, Leah (June 10, 2021). "Florida bans teaching critical race theory in schools". CNN. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  57. ↑ Luse, Brittany (February 24, 2023). "It's Been a Minute: Fear, Florida, and The 1619 Project". NPR.
  58. ↑ "Governor DeSantis Announces Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations". Retrieved April 26, 2023.[permanent dead link]

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