(JUST THE NEWS) – The New York Times’ 1619 Project and its associated materials that seek to “reframe” America’s founding around slavery have provoked such a severe backlash because its ideas are popular beyond black elites and academics, according to contributors to its new book-length collection of essays, subtitled “A New Origin Story.”
They participated in a “book club” event Wednesday with Washington, D.C. public radio veteran Diane Rehm. Missing from the discussion: the project’s founder and most polarizing figure, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, even though she teaches at D.C.’s Howard University.
Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, who is black and also contributed to the original 2019 magazine issue, compared the project to the 1962 book “Beyond the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962.”