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in a special new issue the new york
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times magazine is launching a series
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called the 1619 project it marks the
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400th anniversary of the arrival of the
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first enslaved Africans in the colony of
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Virginia the series examines the ways
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the legacy of slavery continues to shape
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this country the time says the project
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aims to reframe American history and
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place the consequences of slavery and
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the contributions of black Americans at
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the very center of the story we tell
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ourselves about who we are the
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journalists behind the project is New
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York Times magazine domestic
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correspondent Nicole Hannah Jones Nicole
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good morning thanks for being here good
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morning can you tell us about the
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genesis of this project how do where did
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you come up with the idea sure so I've
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been thinking about the year 1619 since
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I was in high school and I came across
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that date in a book called before the
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Mayflower and I just was struck by how
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people of African descent had been here
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that long and I never knew that data
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never heard about it
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so as the anniversary was approaching
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the 400th year I thought that this was a
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time to actually assess what does that
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legacy been and to bring this year 1619
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to most American households where it was
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probably going to pass without them
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knowing about a 1619 is as important as
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1776 yes our decision to buy that first
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group of twenty to thirty Africans would
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influence almost everything that would
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follow after I think it is foundational
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it is as foundational to who we became
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as a country as our decision in 1776 to
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break off from the British you say black
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Americans are the most American of all
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and our true founding fathers can you
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walk us through from that first ship to
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today how we're still seeing the signs
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yes so when you think about the fact
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that when Thomas Jefferson is writing
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the Declaration and laying out these
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words for liberation that you know all
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men are created equal and born with
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inalienable rights and while he's
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writing that he owns 130 human beings
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who are an absolute bondage and in fact
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his brother-in-law sitting there with
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him enslaved to help keep him
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comfortable what that means is those
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ideals were not true when they were
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written but black Americans took those
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ideas literally and black Americans have
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really fought you can look at what
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happens after reconstruction you can
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look at the abolitionist movement you
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can look at the civil rights movement
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people have fought to make those ideals
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real perfecting democracy absolutely I
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can just say this I was so embarrassed
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as a person of color that I had never
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heard of 1619 until I read your essay
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page 16 when you first talked about it
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and I just thought how do we not know
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this and I'm not the only one there was
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only one person there who bet to you
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over there who went to Harvard she knew
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about you and she knew all about this
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project and knew all about the state but
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you said it's time to stop hiding from
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our sins and confront the truth what do
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you mean what I mean is and how do we
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not know about this Nicole we don't know
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about 1619 the same way that we don't
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learn very much about slavery it is
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shameful no one wants to talk about
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their sins or the worst moment and
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slavery gives contradiction to our
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entire creation story of the United
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States and so we've tried to push it
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aside we tried to make it marginal and
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in doing that we've marginalized the 40
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million descendants of the enslaved as
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well so what we're trying to do with
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this project is force us to confront the
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truth and then maybe we can actually
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start to to move past lavery and become
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the country that was written in our
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ideals in the Constitution and the
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Declaration effort to reframe American
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history but some critics have said it's
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an effort to D legitimate American
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history
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from the Cato Institute ella shapiro
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tweeted it's a project intended to
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delegitimize mankind's grandest
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experiment in human liberty is it
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divisive in that way
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I mean what's amazing about that is
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people are not arguing the facts so what
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they're basically arguing is that we
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should only talk about certain facts we
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should talk about the good part of
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Thomas Jefferson but not about the fact
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that he was in enslaver
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I'm saying that history is history and
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we have to tell the truth no it's not
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the legitimacy because the whole point
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of the argue of the article is that
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black Americans have used those founding
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words to actually bring us closer to the
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democracy that the founders envisioned
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and that is the most patriotic of things
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you can take us the thing that's so
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amazing about this that makes me so
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proud
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you can look about in anything that's
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happening just about anything that's
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happening in the world today and tie it
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to slavery you look at the highways in
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Atlanta you look at the naming of Wall
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Street you look at sugar that we eat but
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the thing that stuck out to me was
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health care that you can type you can
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tie health care to slavery how
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absolutely so there's a piece in there
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about why we're the only Western
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industrialized
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country that doesn't have universal
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health care and it starts with
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opposition to universal health care that
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occurs right after slavery when the
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Freedmen's Bureau was trying to offer
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free health care to the formerly
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enslaved and there was white opposition
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to that and so even today you see with
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polling that white Americans will reject
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social programs if they think large
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numbers of black people will benefit
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from them and so the the harms of
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slavery have not been contained because
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there are millions of white Americans or
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millions of Latinos and Asian and black
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Americans who don't have health care who
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can't get insurance because of slavery
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you say don't look at black people as a
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problem look at black people as a
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solution
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yes from the beginning there there have
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been you know thousands of pages
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dedicated to saying that black people
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are as Abraham Lincoln said a
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troublesome presence in our democracy
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but really what we're arguing this
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project as black Americans have been the
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perfectors of this democracy and that if
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we ever got to the point we were stopped
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seeing us as a problem we would actually
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be more of the America that we want to
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be coal I stepped briefly on your line
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earlier you you see this as a patriotic
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act yes of course it is this isn't
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saying that this is a country that needs
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to be destroyed this is not saying that
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this is a country that's illegitimate
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it's saying that this was a country
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founded on ideals that we're not true at
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the time but the black Americans
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believed in those ideals and have worked
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to make those ideals true for all groups
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I don't see what is more patriotic than
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that well you couldn't have expected
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this reaction which is huge by the way
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congrats thank you so much and Bravo to
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you tomorrow on CBS this morning our
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national correspondent Jericka Duncan
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will take us to the site where the first
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enslaved Africans arrived in English
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North America and she will introduce us
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to a family with a very special
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connection to that historic period
