*In a visit Wednesday to “The Daily Show,” New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones chats with host Trevor Noah about the 1619 Project and its exploration of the ways America is still suffering from its foundation of slavery.
“When Thomas Jefferson writes, ‘All men are created equal,’ he owns 130 human beings, even some of his own family members,” said Hannah-Jones.
“We are founded on a hypocrisy, a paradox. But black people read those words and said, “Oh, we’re gonna believe that these words are true and apply to us and fight.”
The interactive 1619 Project was launched in August by The New York Times Magazine to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia. Several Civil War scholars have stated that the project has put forward misleading and historically inaccurate claims. However, Hannah-Jones has said that contributions were deeply researched, and arguments verified by a team of fact-checkers in consultation with historians.
