Nikole Hannah-Jones taunts 'haters' after 1619 Project wins Emmy Award

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Nikole Hannah-Jones: 'Much of the criticism' against the 1619 Project is 'not legitimate'

"1619 Project" author Nikole Hannah-Jones appeared on MSNBC's "Velshi" Saturday to defend her work from what she suggested were "not legitimate" criticisms.

Nikole Hannah-Jones shouted out her "haters" after "The 1619 Project" won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

On Sunday, executive producers Jones, along with Oprah Winfrey, Roger Ross Williams, Shoshanna Guy and Kathleen Lingo were all among those who were handed a trophy for their work on the 2023 Hulu series.

The series is based on Jones' 2019 long-form journalism endeavor for The New York Times, which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center" of the founding of the United States."

After the project was published, five historians penned a letter to The New York Times demanding corrections for the errors they found. The most significant error was its claim that the American Revolution was fought in order to preserve slavery when most historians say it was a disrupter of slavery.

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES DESCRIBES CONTROVERSIAL '1619 PROJECT' IN ONE WORD: 'TRUTH'

Nikole Hannah-Jones posted a video with her Emmy trophy after "The 1619 Project" won for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. (Twitter Screenshot/Nikole Hannah-Jones)

Following the win, Deadline posted the headline, "Polarizing 'The 1619 Project,' Attacked By Conservatives, Earns Emmy Win For Oprah, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Roger Ross Williams & More'"

"I am perplexed that @DEADLINE felt the need to describe the #1619Project this way. But guess what — WE WON THE EMMY so write what you want. We do our work on behalf of the ancestors!" Hannah-Jones wrote in response to the headline.

She followed up with a video of her holding her trophy while spinning and circles before giving the peace sign, alongside the caption, "Live footage of me twirling on the haters."

Critics have previously slammed "The 1619 Project" not only for promoting allegedly divisive rhetoric, "sweeping claims" and historical errors, but also for becoming an integral part of curriculum in some schools across the country that have adopted a critical race theory lens to study history.

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Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones attends a premiere for the television series "The 1619 Project" in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

"The project sparked a lot of debate about possible historical inaccuracies, and the Pulitzer Center website claims that about 4,500 classrooms have already included the 1619 Project's ideas in their curriculum since 2019. In fact, five school systems adopted the project broadly: Buffalo, New York; Washington, DC.; Chicago, Illinois; Wilmington, Delaware; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina," National Director of Research at the American Federation for Children Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital last April.

"The 1619 Project" has also been criticized by various politicians, including former President Donald Trump, who called the project a "toxic propaganda and ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together, will destroy our country."

"When you look at this effort to really explicitly sanitize the history of slavery it is is because of a pushback against The 1619 Project and so many of the texts it was based upon that are offering a counter narrative to the mythology of America," Hannah-Jones told Deadline.

"We hope that when people watch the series, no matter what their race is, they do understand that we will collectively rise or collectively struggle together. And until we face up to our past, it seems we're destined to struggle," she added. 

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Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.