‘No People Has a Greater Claim to That Flag Than Us’

The headquarters of The New York Times is in a busy area of Manhattan where the sidewalks are always bustling. But on the Thursday before the Labor Day weekend, there were larger-than-usual crowds in front of our entrance. And they were after copies of one of the most exciting pieces of journalism we’ve produced in a while.

We were handing out 2,000 free copies of our 1619 Project, which has caused quite a sensation in the three weeks since it was published.

As a black man born and educated in the United States, I found that the 1619 Project — comprising a special edition of our Sunday magazine, a section of the newspaper, a kids section, a five-part podcast and a curriculum — opened my eyes to the impact slavery has had in America far beyond what I was taught in school. It was conceived by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a staff writer for the Times Magazine. I sat down with Nikole, who is a friend, to discuss the project and the reaction to it.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Who was the audience you had in mind?

Americans who are not black, so that they could understand this history and ongoing legacy and really reckon with our true identity as a country and who we really are. I wanted to reframe the way that we see this history and the way that we see ourselves.