Nikole Hannah-Jones on The 1619 Project’s Reframing of American History

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4.8 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Four hundred years ago this month, more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in what was then the British colony of Virginia. To mark the anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, The New York Times launched a major initiative called The 1619 Project. Through a special issue of the New York Times Magazine, along with a slew of other resources, the project centers slavery in our national narrative, tracking how the legacy of that brutal institution continues to manifest in every aspect of American life. Nikole Hannah-Jones — an award winning investigative journalist, a New York Times Magazine staff writer, and the driving force behind the 1619 Project — joins At Liberty to discuss the initiative.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.
0:07.8	I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.
0:18.2	400 years ago this month, more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in what was then the British
0:23.7	colony of Virginia. To mark the anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, the New York
0:29.0	Times has launched the 1619 project, with a special edition of the Sunday paper and a slew of other
0:34.7	related resources. The goal of the project is ambitious. It aims to reframe the country's history to center slavery in our national narrative, emphasizing how the legacy of that brutal institution continues to manifest in every aspect of American life. The project has been enthusiastically received, selling out multiple print runs in the last few days.
0:55.1	Here to discuss the project is Nicole Hannah-Jones, an award-winning investigative journalist,
0:59.9	a New York Times Magazine staff writer, and the driving force behind the 1619 project.
1:05.1	Nicole Hannah-Jones, it's a great pleasure to have you with us on the show today. Welcome to the
1:08.2	podcast. Thank you for having me. So this project is
1:11.4	quite astonishing for its ambition and scope. The 1619 project includes several long essays,
1:17.9	including one by yourself, shorter vignettes, works of poetry, photography, and even a curriculum for
1:23.9	schools. And I understand a podcast series is also about to drop. But your introductory
1:28.6	essay, I think, frames the project and introduces its core thesis. Can I ask you to start by
1:33.4	reading a passage from your essay, which is entitled The Idea of America? Sure. The United States
1:39.9	is a nation founded both on an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4th, 1776,
1:48.5	proclaims that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable
1:54.1	rights. But the white men who drafted those words do not believe them to be true for the hundreds
1:59.0	of thousands of black people in their midst. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness do not apply to fully one-fifth of the country.
2:06.4	Yet despite being violently denied the freedom and justice promised to all, black Americans
2:11.4	believe fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of black resistance and protest,
2:16.7	we have helped this country live up to its
	...

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