The 1619 Project, debuting tonight on Hulu, promises a new debate about critical race theory and America’s undeniable history

The film adaptation of The 1619 project, the New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning essay series that fueled the hilarious debate over critical race theory, makes its Hulu debut tonight. If history is any guide – and that’s what the whole series is about – the docu-series will be just as polarizing as the original version.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Times project architect, serves as the protagonist of the series, which aims to do nothing less than “reshape the nation’s history by focusing on the impact of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans .” national story of the United States,” as the newspaper put it at the time The 1619 project reached readers in August 2019.

The journalist-turned-University Professor for the Times Initiative’s opening essay became the basis for Episode 1 of the six-part series.

“From the beginning, we wanted to undermine this idea of ​​American democracy and the way we think about black contributions [to it]’ Hannah-Jones tells Deadline. “We more or less admit that our brutal work has contributed to this some for the economy of this country. But of course we argue [in the series] that our greatest contribution is democracy itself, and how else could one think of black people once you understand this one basic fact. This is the argument that drives the entire series.”

Adds showrunner Shoshana Guy: “[It’s] this idea of ​​”America, the land of the free”. But who is actually fighting for this freedom? We’re unpacking that and really trying to put those pieces together — and it can be complicated trying to do that, especially in this medium, but I hope people make those connections.

The first two episodes of the series start tonight, two on February 2 and the last two on February 9. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams directed and produced two of the episodes; Oprah Winfrey, Hannah-Jones and Naimah Jabali-Nash are producers. Williams sought out Hannah-Jones to help adapt the documentary.

“I read The 1619 project and was moved on so many levels,” Williams tells Deadline. “And I was determined to be a part of it. But I had to go to Nicole. I called everyone I knew at the New York Times, and when I finally got a chance to talk to her, I said, “Everything I’ve done, all the work, has been leading up to this.” This project is so important to me, to who I am, to my own experiences as a black American. And I owe it to my family.” It’s just been an incredible, incredible journey.”

The series offers a comprehensive examination of our country, beginning with the arrival of enslaved Africans in the British colonies 404 years ago. From the beginning, white slave owners had the right to rape the black women they owned, as the series shows, leading to a growing population of mixed-race Americans. From that point on, race becomes an extremely important construct in this country, a battleground over who enjoys the privileges of whiteness.

“An early question” in the 17th century^e In the late 19th century, reproductive justice scholar Dorothy Roberts observed in the series: “What is the status of a child born to a black woman but conceived by a white man? … Under British law, which was patrilineal law, required these children to have their father’s status… If the children had their father’s status, the children would be entitled to their father’s wealth, their land and, most importantly, their white status , and it would not have served the white elite.”

The Virginia Colonial Assembly circumvented this problem in 1662 by passing legislation allowing the enslavement of children of black women. As the series explores, any progress toward freedom or equality for Black Americans is repeatedly met with obstacles erected by whites. During the Reconstruction era, when blacks gained access to the polls, whites waged a campaign of terror to prevent them from voting, and later renounced poll fees, literacy tests, and other means of maintaining white supremacy.

And what about the great liberator Abraham Lincoln? Many viewers will not know that in the midst of the Civil War, 16th^e President made a serious plea to send black Americans back to Africa if the North prevailed (see historian Eric Foner’s book for a detailed discussion of this The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery). Frederick Douglass and other prominent African Americans strongly opposed such an idea. Indeed, the series argues that black Americans should be recognized as the most genuine Americans, the perfection of our democracy, the people who have made the most sacrifices to achieve their ideals.

The truth is that white Americans and black Americans share a common history – one of the consistent and unrelenting oppression of a black minority by a white ruling caste. And yet we also share a common fate.

“That’s why people say: ‘Who is this project for? We say this is true of all Americans – that it is true that our destinies have always been intertwined,” says Hannah-Jones. “They’ve been intertwined since 1619. It’s not just blacks who suffer, Americans — in fact, most Americans of all races — suffer because we were created on that basis of slavery and we can’t get over it.” So we hope that when people see the series, no matter what their race, they understand that we will stand together or fight together, and until we face our past, it seems we are destined is to fight.

The release of The 1619 project received major backlash from conservatives. President Trump, who was in office when the series aired, was outraged.

“Critical Race Theory, The 1619 project and the crusade against American history is poisonous propaganda, ideological poison,” he explained, “which, if not removed, will unravel the civic ties that bind us together and destroy our country.”

According to the series, there have been 33 attempts at the state level to pass legislation to “prevent educators from teaching The 1619 project or systemic racism.’ Florida and Texas have pioneered in determining what aspects of American history can be taught and how.

“It’s always confusing to me that people think that something radically happened exactly. It’s just history. It’s not really that radical,” says Guy, the showrunner. “I hope this series can be used as a resource to continue teaching. My dream after it airs on TV is for people to use it in schools and for it to continue to help our young people understand and contextualize the world they live in in a way that is relevant to their accessible and beautiful. see.”

Williams added, “Nikole wouldn’t have done her job and we wouldn’t have done our job if it were her [conservatives] not talked about. If they didn’t care, then we didn’t do our job. So the fact that they is talking about it means they are afraid. And it’s about power. They don’t want to give up power, so there will be a struggle and they will do whatever it takes to hold on to that power.”

He adds, “Maybe Americans will realize that it’s really about power… it’s about that [when] the few control power, all Americans suffer.