What is the 1619 Project?
In a Forbes released this past week, author Evan Gertsmann outlined how President Donald Trump is against the teaching of New York Times’ 1619 Project in schools.
On Twitter last week, Trump said that public schools in California that share the project with students “will not be funded,” and that the “Department of Education is looking at this.”
Gertsmann summarizes it as this:
The 1619 Project is a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by the New York Times that argues that 1619, the date the first slave ship arrived in the American colonies, is the true date of America’s founding rather than 1776. In short, this country was founded on the ideal of slavery, not liberty.
The 1619 Project defines itself as:
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
Have a look at the project slideshow by clicking the link below:
400 years ago, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. No aspect of the country that would be formed in America has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed. Read more from the #1619Project: https://t.co/IRW25he0BP
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 25, 2019