The 1619 Project - St. James' Skaneateles

Did You Know? By Emma Cowley

Have you heard of the 1619 Project? 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. The 1619 Project began as an article in the New York Times and then Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones created a collaboration of essays and historical vignettes into a book in 2021. Now the 1619 Project has become a docuseries on HULU. Hannah-Jones states: “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” This is the premise of the project to investigate and show the full history that we haven’t been taught and show how one-sided and white washed our history books have been. This docuseries is so well done and so informative. I highly recommend watching this series. If you don’t have HULU invest in reading the book, reading the article or listen to the New York Times 1619 Project Podcast. The more we learn about the past the better we can understand how and why systemic racism is so prevalent in America.