Five years ago, on July 4, 2020, the country was in the midst of waves of rioting.
The proximate cause, the match that lit the fire, was the death of a black man, a violent ex-convict, on May 25, with fentanyl and methamphetamines in his system, while in the custody of police. As with the Rodney King incident in 1992, selective footage inspired the looting and murdering mobs.
But the tinder had been drying since the previous summer when a special issue of the New York Times Magazine was published on August 18, 2019. Schoolchildren in over 3,500 schools had been imbibing the lessons of its “1619 Project” for just as long.
Anti-American historical revisionism added fuel to the flame.
The creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, took pride in the fruit of her work, tweeting that it was an “honor” to have the riots named after her 1619 Project.
The 2020 riots, in addition to being known as the George Floyd riots, were dubbed “the 1619 riots” by Claremont McKenna College professor Charles Kesler. New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, inveighing against President Trump’s Fourth of July address at Mount Rushmore, called the “protests” a “legacy of rage dating to 1619.”
The so-called “protests” by August 22 included almost 570 violent demonstrations in 220 locations, resulting in over two dozen deaths, countless injuries, and upwards of $25 billion in property damage. The murder rate rose by 30 percent in 2020. Oddly, rioters attacked historical monuments and statues, ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Union soldiers to a pioneer woman to a moose. Symbols of the country’s heritage were painted with “1619” and torn down, sometimes on the bodies of raging protestors. At least one was killed.
On July 4, 2020, the front page of the publication that had put forth the incendiary history reported that about 80 percent of community fireworks displays had been canceled due to the “coronavirus pandemic.” The New York Times also reported on Europe’s lead in providing payments ...