The “1619 Project” is made up of multiple stories and poems about racism and slavery. It suggests America’s “true founding” was when the first slaves arrived in 1619, and it “aims to reframe the country’s history.” The project has already been implemented in some public schools around the country.
The NYT refused to issue any corrections, it announced Thursday, despite a letter written by five historians concerned about the project’s “misleading” and “factual errors.” Some of the historians that signed onto the original letter expressed frustration and concern to the Daily Caller at the NYT’s unwillingness to issue corrections.
Much has been made of the criticism of the #1619Project by 4 historians on the World Socialist Web Site. Those 4+1 more submitted a letter 2 my editors demanding corrections. We stand behind our reporting. Here’s their letter & @jakesilverstein’s response https://t.co/qV4X2cOpsS— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 20, 2019
Profs. Victoria Bynum of Texas State University, James M. McPherson of Princeton University, James Oakes of the City University of New York, Sean Wilentz of Princeton University and Gordon S. Wood of Brown University signed the original letter published Thursday in the NYT.
“In the long run the Project will lose its credibility, standing, and persuasiveness with the nation as a whole,” Wood wrote in a follow-up letter he sent to the NYT following the response by Jake Silverstein, NYT Magazine’s editor-in-chief.
The letter was obtained by the Daily Caller Sunday.
“I fear it will eventually hurt the cause rather than help it. We all want justice, but not at the expense of truth. I have spent my career studying the American Revolution and cannot accept the view that ‘one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.'”
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