The New York Times Magazine launched the 1619 Project last weekend, and on Friday, Aug. 21, it will be available as a podcast.
The project marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves on a Portuguese slave ship at Port Comfort, in the British colony of Virginia. It is a historic moment that typically passes without acknowledgment from news outlets or the general public, Columbia Journalism Review reported.
The scope of the 1619 Project is huge and will be ongoing for years. In addition to the magazine, a special section of the Sunday newspaper examined the genesis of what became the transatlantic slave trade. The Sunday sports section featured a story exploring the impact of slavery on professional sports.
The 1619 Project has drawn widespread praise and the inevitable firestorm as it seeks to reframe the story we’ve been sold about slavery in the U.S.
“I’m all in.., You should consider a hard bound coffee table version.., thank you for the audio component,” @Cockspur_coxman tweeted.
Historian, conservative and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the whole 1619 Project “a lie” and a “propaganda paper.” Sitting senators and some of the most influential commentators on the right screamed about the project.
The project, spearheaded by NY Times Magazine editor Nikole Hannah-Jones, puts “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story of we tell ourselves about who we are.”
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To tell the truth about slavery, The Times is using multiple vehicles.
The Daily, the morning news podcast of the New York Times, plans to debut a multi-episode series dedicated to The 1619 Project beginning Aug. 20.
“This project is, above all, an attempt to set the record straight,” Hannah-Jones said at its debut. “To finally, in this 400th year, tell the truth about who we are as a people and who we are as a nation. It is time to stop hiding from our sins and confront them. And then in confronting them, it is time to make them right.”
You can subscribe to the first episode of the 1619 Podcast here.
