‘The 1619 Project:’ The American history Georgia wants us to forget is airing on Hulu

Thanks to the unlimited possibilities of streaming services, Hulu has teamed up with The 1619 Project to air American history that has been blocked by lawmakers from the textbooks of Georgia’s K-12. 

The 1619 Project, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times essay series that accelerated the vociferous debate over Critical Race Theory, recently made its debut on Hulu and can now be viewed by families on their living room televisions from the comforts of their sofa. 

With Hulu’s help, the stories of the history of slavery, its impact, and its role in American history can now be seen, heard, and discussed by families who desire to know more about this subject than what the state of Georgia is limiting students to receive within the classroom.

Airing now, the first episode has Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones exploring how slaves in Virginia were a key bargaining tool and the eventual catalyst for the Southern Colonies’ agreement to join the Revolutionary War — something historical sites like Colonial Williamsburg often erase from the story.

The docuseries will showcase Black Americans with firsthand accounts, explanations, interviews and stories that have been consistently omitted from the historical record.

Helping on the Hulu docuseries is Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. On the1619 project, Holton said, “If slaves had been as passive as I was taught they were in Virginia schools, then the Revolution might not have ever come to the South. And you can’t win the Revolution without the South.”

Named after the year that the first enslaved Africans landed on the shores of Virginia, the work’s main aim was to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”

First published as a longform collection in the August 2019 edition of The New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, and was eventually adapted into a book and curriculum developed by the Pulitzer Center.  

An anti CRT movement, championed by fear-mongering politicians, was launched to push back against the project and other curriculum that might teach critical race theory. This led to the establishment of anti CRT laws being established within Georgia public schools.