Celebrate Independence Day weekend with the broader truth. The roots of the United States of America began 401 years ago in August 1619 when the first enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. The 1619 Project, released in August last year by The New York Times, invites us to expand our view of the creation of the US. It requires us to see the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans as the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.