The 1619 Project: Why It Is As It Is

Nikole Hannah-Jones has been a journalist for over twenty years, and in August 2019, she launched the acclaimed 1619 Project for The New York Times Magazine. Her vision was for the project to “commemorate the 400-year anniversary of the first African boat brought to Virginia” in order to “really acknowledge how central slavery was to the development of our country, and that the legacy of slavery continues across nearly every aspect of American life.” She further explains, “I just felt it was necessary for us to document this anniversary, understanding that most Americans are unfamiliar with the date and have probably never heard of the year 1619. I really wanted to force that date into the national timeline.”

The project “didn’t unearth new history,” but rather, it presented that very history to the “wider public.” In fact, the year 1619 remained unknown throughout the country until last year. “We don’t get this history in our K-12 education,” Hannah-Jones says. “There is voluminous historiography on slavery, on racism, but it’s just not widely taught. It’s not part of national memory, it’s not part of national monuments, it’s not documented in our public spaces – but the history is certainly there.”

Given its nature, Hannah-Jones has occasionally received negative reactions to the 1619 Project. “I would have been extremely naïve if I had not thought that there would be any backlash to this project in some sectors. It was a project that was placing slavery at the center of the national narrative, that was placing the contributions of Black people at the center of the national narrative that was challenging the mythology of our founding,” she shares. “If we were a country that had done a good job of grappling with this history, the 1619 Project would not have been necessary.”

While Hannah-Jones believes that the pushback “was inevitable” and “really speaks to the power of the project,” she won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, and moreover, Oprah Winfrey and Lionsgate have partnered with Hannah-Jones to adapt the project for feature films, TV series, documentaries, and other cross-platform content. “The positive response and reception were and remain beyond my wildest dreams. The magazine sold out all across the country on the day it was released,” she says.

As the 1619 Project is currently “becoming part of curriculums in every state in the country, and even with the protests following George Floyd’s death, you continue to see references to the year 1619,” Hannah-Jones is “quite proud of the way that people have embraced and learned from the project.” And yet, there is far more progress to be made – in order to heal from 400 years of suffering in America. “Atonement is more important than an apology that would require the federal government to pass and implement a reparations bill,” affirms Hannah-Jones, who hopes that the 1619 Project offers “the roadmap of how we got to have a Black Lives Matter movement in the first place, how we got to where we are today.”

Also, to “make sure that the field of investigative reporting is representative of America” and open doors “for as many journalists of color” as possible, Hannah-Jones is actively improving the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting that she co-founded in 2016. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do – producing journalism that matters,” she says. “My hope for the future is that I can continue to do this type of work and that I will continue to help other journalists reach their ambitions, as well.”

Writer: Sophia Mazurowski

Photographer & Videographer: Ron Contarsy (for Highmark Studios)

Editor: Eiko Watanabe

Special thanks to EPK Media (@myepk & @epkmedia - epkmedia.com)