NYT Magazine’s 1619 Project paved the way for mainstream media to pursue CRT and race-based reporting: Experts

The New York Times Magazine's publication of the 1619 Project in August 2019 has helped spark a bevy of think pieces on critical race theory and paved the way for a surge in race-based reporting, multiple experts and analysts agreed. 

The project, penned in part by lead writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, purports that 1619, the year the first enslaved Africans were brought to what would later become the United States, should be considered the true founding year of the country. Critics and historians who were consulted on the project have since hit the report as being full of historical inaccuracies, such as suggesting the Revolutionary War was fought in part to preserve slavery.

No matter what side of the debate Americans found themselves on, many noted the uptick in race-based studies and news reports.  

The Washington Post published a database in January on the number of congressmen who once owned slaves. The authors declared their research provides a "greater understanding" of how slaveholding "influenced early America."  

"More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation," the title of the study read.