Nikole Hannah-Jones Rips 1619 Project Backlash and ‘Propaganda Campaign Against CRT’: Our Country ‘Willfully Denied This History’

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project, sat down with the co-hosts of The View on Tuesday to discuss her book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story — out today.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg began by asking Hannah-Jones to break down what the 1619 Project was all about. Hannah-Jones explained, “The year 1619 is the year that the first Africans were sold into the colony of Virginia. So we mark that as the beginning of American slavery, and 2019 was the 400th anniversary.”

With the project, which was a series of long-form articles published in 2019 by the New York Times and New York Times Magazine, Hannah-Jones adds “we wanted to teach about not just the legacy of a foundational American institution, but all the way it shapes the society we live in today.”

Co-host Joy Behar then brings in the criticism:

“So, the 1619 Project was controversial from day one. I think you know that. Some schools embraced it into the curriculum, some states banned it. Some historians say there were inaccuracies, and Republicans true to form weaponized it like they are doing now with Critical Race Theory”

Hannah-Jones responds saying she always knew the project would be controversial. “Frankly if everyone embraced the project, the project probably would not have succeeded,” she says, adding, “I am surprised though that states are actually banning the teaching of the project.”

“We have the first amendment for a reason,” she argues. “We have a country that says we believe in free speech, and if you don’t like an idea, then come up with a better one, right? You don’t ban it.”

After a discussion about how little American students know about Civil War history, Hannah-Jones further addresses the criticism against the 1619 Project:

“Well, I think we can look at the backlash to the 1619 Project, the — the backlash to the propaganda campaign against Critical Race Theory and see that we are a country that has willfully — willfully denied this history. That has not wanted to teach it and own up to the fact that slavery is one of the oldest institutions in America, and that so much of the wealth of our country was built on enslavement, so much of our political, legal, cultural systems. But we have been in denial about that”

Watch above, via The View