The US and Slavery: Debate on the “1619 Project”

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Nikole Hannah-Jones' essays won the Pulitzer Prize. Oprah Winfrey produced the documentary series “1619 Project” from it. Their goal: to retell US history with a focus on the impact of slavery.

Lithograph of the 1770 Boston massacre in which the African-American longshoreman Crispus Attucks was shot

“The first enslaved Africans were brought here over 400 years ago. Since then, no aspect of American history has remained untouched by the legacy of slavery,” says journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones in the intro of the documentary series “The 1619 Project”.

The series is based on Hannah-Jones' essays of the same name, which first appeared in the New York Times magazine in 2019 and were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The series, which was released on Thursday (January 26, 2023) on the American streaming platform Hulu, was produced by Oprah Winfrey.

It complements the journalistic long-term observation with impressions of today's Afro-American life in the USA, such as the struggle of black workers for union representation in the latest waves of layoffs from Amazon from Alabama to New York or the struggle of black mothers against racist treatment in access to appropriate medical care Treatment.

Fighting for a new historical awareness: US journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones

< p>As in the underlying essays, the documentary also addresses Hannah-Jones' own African American family history. Her father, a descendant of slaves who grew up in the apartheid state of Mississippi, served in the US Army in the 1960s in the hope that “his country would finally treat him as an American too.” But that didn't happen, and he spent the rest of his life in precarious jobs. And yet, as a proud patriot, he always raised the American flag in his backyard. 

But the young Hannah-Jones rejected such an identification with the USA. “I couldn't understand how he so proudly flaunts his patriotism for a country that treats him so badly,” she says on the show. But later she sees her father as the personification of the American Dream. “Our blood, sweat and tears are in this soil,” she continues, “my father knew that no one is more entitled to this flag than we are, because we fought the hardest for it.”

Oprah Winfrey produced the “1619 Project” documentary series

Conservative backlash under Donald Trump

While Hannah-Jones has been celebrated for her work on the 400-year history of US slavery and its socio-economic implications, her claim that slavery played a fundamental role in America's statehood has been questioned – both on the left and also on the right-wing of the political spectrum.

Leftists believe the thesis is basically correct, but see some conclusions from it critically, especially the role of slavery in the American Revolution. A criticism Hannah-Jones can accept.

But the right-wing populists, with then-President Donald Trump right in the middle, declared war on this reinterpretation of American history. The year “1619” refers to the arrival of a group of around twenty captured and abducted Africans in the English colony of Virginia. For Hannah-Jones, this event marks the new starting point of American historiography, which, however, calls into question the previous version, which begins with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or the arrival of the English Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. The “1619 Project” is related to  another favorite enemy of the right-wing conservatives: the critical race theory. This is actually a collection of theoretical approaches that want to make “race” (also used in German, editor's note) visible as a social construct and identify – and fight – structural racism.

“The '1619 Project' and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda,” Trump said at a political rally in 2019. He then announced he would cut funding for California schools if they included “The 1619 Project” in their curriculum. The New York Times previously reported that it plans to edit and make available “1619” materials as educational materials.

Demonstration in Kentucky 2021, also against Critical Race Theory in school lessons

In response to Hannah-Jones' thesis that the 1776 struggle for independence was also fought to perpetuate the system of slavery – as opposed to the traditional narrative of the struggle for independence and freedom – Trump created the now-deleted “1776 Project “. In doing so, he wanted to help “patriotic education” regain its validity. For Hannah-Jones, however, it is purely political opinion-making.  “Race is the oldest bone of contention in America,” she said in an interview with NPR radio.

Was the issue of slavery central to the American Revolution?

There was also criticism from left-wing historians and from the political center: The view that the American Revolution was mainly fought to maintain slavery while the English colonists wanted to abolish slavery is questionable, they said.

“The 1619 Project is polemic, not based on 'fact history,'” said Pascal Roberts, a California state political commentator specializing in black politics, on his This is Revolution podcast. He points to the genocide of Native Americans, the lack of women's rights and restricted access for white male voters after the 1776 revolution, and accuses the project of a lack of analysis of class as a category of oppression under capitalism.

Earlier, five New York Times historians wrote an open letter about the 1619 Project, praising it “in an effort to address the continuing centrality of slavery and racism in our history,” but also “factual errors and criticized the process behind “closed doors”. Most notably, the project's claim that the 13 colonies under British rule waged the Revolutionary War to retain slavery was “incorrect”. They therefore demanded an official correction.

Trump supporter versus Black Lives Matter protester 2020 in Washington

The New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief, Jake Silverstein, dismissed the request on the grounds that “historical understanding is not set in stone”. Shortly thereafter, the African-American historian Leslie M. Harris, who had served as a consultant on the project, confessed that she had “argued vigorously against” the revolution's primary goal of maintaining slavery.

Although Hannah-Jones stands by her claim, Harris continues to believe the 1619 Project is a “much-necessary corrective” that sheds new light on America's origins, as she writes in Politico magazine. However, she fears that by shunning Hannah-Jones and the editors has opened the door for critics to “discredit the entire project”.

Hulu series in the midst of an American culture clash

< p>As Radical Republicans step up their fight against Critical Race Theory and the idea that systematic racism has shaped American society from the start, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got serious last week and banned African American history classes in schools.

This follows previous attempts to remove certain books from school curricula, such as Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's novel 'Beloved', which explores the effects of slavery on an African-American family describes the American Civil War.

Despite ongoing criticism of her historical methods from all political camps: against the background of such blatant attempts at censorship, Nikole Hannah-Jones is determined to continue her work. “You might be able to ban what someone learns in a classroom, but you can't prevent people from watching a documentary and getting that information,” Hannah-Jones said combatively.

Translated from the English by Julia Hitz