The 1619 Project Reframes American History Around Slavery

The New York Times Magazine published The 1619 Project, conceived and led by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, on August 14, 2019, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English North America. The project reframed American history by placing slavery and Black Americans' contributions at the center of the national narrative. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020. Republican politicians and some historians launched sustained attacks; Tom Cotton called slavery a 'necessary evil'; multiple states introduced legislation to ban its teaching. Hannah-Jones was denied tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill in a politically motivated decision before the faculty overruled trustees.