What is the 1619 Project?
THE 1619 Project grew out of an idea for a special edition of The New York Times to mark the 400th anniversary of the slave trade in August 2019  The idea has since grown into a curriculum for schools and was attacked by former president Donald Trump. The project, which won a Pulitzer Prize, reframes American history around the date that the first slave ship's arrived on America's shores in August 1619, instead of 1776 when the founding fathers declared independence from Britain. After the project was launched by New York Times Magazine in 2019, they partnered with the Pulitzer Center to develop educational resources so teachers could incorporate the project into history lessons. The 1619 Project curriculum was launched in August 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in the English colonies and its legacy. The aim is to reframe the countrys history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of [The United States'] national narrative". 6 The 1619 Project was devised to show how slavery has shaped and impacted US society Credit: The Mega Agency  The 1619 Project was developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative journalist from The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine. Reports say California had incorporated the New York Times' 1619 Project into lesson plans at public schools. The 1619 Project looks at how slavery shaped and continues to permeate through American society by expanding on early accounts that are largely left out of the historical curriculums taught in schools. The project has been slammed by those who oppose it as containing several inaccuracies, including that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery, rather than to achieve independence from Britain. However. the project has met with fierce resistance from some Republican politicians. 6 Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton introduced legislation to prevent schools teaching the curriculum Credit: EPA  Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton sparked a backlash after he introduced legislation that would prevent schools from teaching the curriculum. The legislation "would prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project by K-12 schools or school districts. Schools that teach the 1619 Project would also be ineligible for federal professional-development grants." Cotton said: "The 1619 Project is a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying the true principles on which it was founded." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described it as "left-wing propaganda masquerading as 'the truth'". On July 6, Hannah-Jones announced she has decided to reject an offer to serve as the chair of the journalism department at the University of North Carolina, and that she will take a similar position at Howard University. The decision follows a massive controversy at the North Carolina school, which initially did not offer Hannah-Jones tenure. "It's a very difficult decision, not one I wanted to make," she told Gayle King on CBS This Morning. Hannah-Jones said she will serve as the inaugural Knight chair in race and reporting at Howard, a historically Black university in Washington DC. Last week, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill trustees voted to approve tenure for the New York Times Magazine journalist after a broad backlash against their initial decision. 6 Nikole Hannah-Jones is the author of the 1619 Project Credit: AP  The move to at first deny her tenure came after conservative groups complained about her involvement in the creation of the Timess 1619 Project. Todays outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me," Hannah-Jones said when UNC approved tenure for her. "This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students. "We must ensure that our work is protected and able to proceed free from the risk of repercussions, and we are not there yet. "These last weeks have been very challenging and difficult and I need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward." On July 6, Hannah-Jones said that "to be denied it, and to only be granted tenure on the last possible day at the last possible moment after legal action, after weeks of protests, after it became a national scandal, it's just not something I wanted anymore." Trump has also spoken out against the project and threatened to defund public schools if they incorporated it into their lessons. "Department of Education is looking into this," the president wrote on Twitter. "If so, they will not be funded!" 6 Donald Trump has threatened to defund schools that teach the curriculum in the 1619 Project Credit: AFP or licensors  In an interview with Fox News, Trump said: "I just look at - I look at school. I watch, I read, look at the stuff. Now they want to change - 1492, Columbus discovered America. You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that's what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 project. I don't even know".