‘1619 Project’ Founder Doesn’t Know When The Civil War Happened

The creator of the revisionist ‘1619 Project,’ Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has long argued that pretty much all complex modern issues – from obesity and traffic jams to capitalism itself – is the result of racism being at America’s core, apparently has yet to grasp the simple dates for the Civil War. With the recent release of the much anticipated book formed out of her popular essay series, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, academics and educators have hailed it as laying the groundwork for upending and transforming the way the United States’ foundational story of its beginnings as a nation is told, even down to impacting how elementary school teachers present America’s founders to school children.

The book assures us that “the inheritance of 1619” – that is slavery, racism and social injustice – “reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.” Given her outsized influence as a New York Times writer, and now that she’s being held up in mainstream media and even establishment academia as an ‘expert’ on American history and origin story, it’s not too comforting to know that she doesn’t know the basic dates for the Civil War.

“…until 1865, when the North was reluctantly drawn into a war that ultimately ended slavery.” The woefully misinformed and ignorant of basic facts response which claimed the Civil War began in 1865 came during a Monday Twitter fight with William Hogeland, who himself is a widely published author of American history.

A number of commenters were quick to point out in the wake of Hannah-Jones getting a basic fact which is taught to school children across the country wrong: “Why would we expect you to know the correct year,” one quipped. 

When the head of the “1619 Project” can’t even get the year the Civil War began right… https://t.co/6EAryt5zDP

— Joseph Kishore (@jkishore) January 3, 2022

Another pointed out the obvious: “I know history isn’t your strong suit, but the Civil War *ended* in 1865.” And another said, “When you have google at the palm of your hand, it makes no sense to state incorrectly when the Civil War began.”

The U.S. Civil War began on April 12, 1861 and for all intents and purposes ended on April 9, 1865. Students should memorize those dates rather than read a curriculum designed by someone who doesn’t know them. pic.twitter.com/L11GxJEJgT

— Justin Lee (@justindeanlee) January 3, 2022

And it was Arc Digital Associate Editor Justin Lee who schooled Hannah-Jones on the basics: “The U.S. Civil War began on April 12, 1861 and for all intents and purposes ended on April 9, 1865. Students should memorize those dates rather than read a curriculum designed by someone who doesn’t know them.”

Of course, she and her fellow ideological travelers are all too likely to see memorization itself as somehow “racist” and the result of White privilege. 

And despite dozens of commenters on Twitter attempting to let Hanna-Jones know that she has the basic facts utterly wrong, the Tweet is still live as of late Monday afternoon – some 4 or 5 hours after she wrote it…

We did not stop the expansion of slavery, and enslavers dominated the presidency, Senate and Supreme Court until 1865, when the North was reluctantly drawn into a war that ultimately ended slavery.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) January 3, 2022