Why schools adopted the 1619 Project as a curriculum when it was full of historical errors
Originally Published on FoxNews.com
One critic of the project described it as 'history told through the lens of critical race theory'
Since the 1619 Project was founded by New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones in August 2019, it has been marred with credible accusations of historical distortions and inaccuracies. Despite this bipartisan backlash, it continues to be integrated in school curriculums across the country because it is considered a factual historical narrative that has the prestigious backing of a legacy paper.
For example, Randi Weingarten, the union president of the American Federation of Teachers, denied the project peddles falsehoods.
"All of a sudden you're hearing people ... who are trying to ban the 1619 Project, because it is trying to … actually teach a factual version of oppression in America," she said.
The project is shielded with an abundance of praise from liberal media, with ABC’s Robin Roberts calling it a symbol of courage and "truth," and MSNBC's Joy Reid saying it is a "phenomenal piece of journalism."
Many historians have peeked behind the curtain of New York Times prestige and found factual inaccuracies, which some go as far to condemn as "anti-historical."
"The 1619 Project is the perfect tool for making angry, anti-American student activists," Mary Grabar told Fox News. The author of "Debunking the 1619 Project," believes Hannah-Jones' creation is, essentially, "history told through the lens of critical race theory, … substitute[ing] objectivity with narrative storytelling."
"[The Project] engages students, and it makes them activists, which is what a lot of teachers want to do. There are way too many woke teachers. They've been trained in colleges of education to produce not knowledgeable citizens, but left-wing social activists."
After the project was published in the magazine, five historians penned a letter to The New York Times demanding corrections for the errors they found. The most significant error was that The American Revolution was fought in order to preserve slavery when most historians say it was a disrupter of slavery…