Connecticut Professor Sends Controversial Anti-1619 Project Email Blast to Public School Superintendents

Teaching a new perspective on slavery and the contributions of Black Americans has sparked a backlash in Connecticut.

A state university professor is denouncing an award-winning initiative named The 1619 Project, calling the project and its creator misleading, bigoted, and more. But the professor’s critique, and how he distributed it, has raised questions.

As soon as it showed up in Putnam Superintendent Daniel Sullivan’s inbox, a strongly worded email about what the district teaches got his attention.

“I realized that the concerns are actually much more deeply personal than they are curriculum based,” Sullivan said.

The email, sent to every public-school superintendent in Connecticut, came from Central Connecticut State University European History Professor Jay Bergman. In it, he cautions districts against using any part of something called The 1619 Project in their instruction, calling it “…entirely false, mostly false, or misleading.”