Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976)[1][2] is an American investigative journalist[3] known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States.[4] In April 2015, she became a staff writer for The New York Times, where she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2020.[5][4]

Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones at the 2016 Peabody Awards
Born
Nikole Sheri Hannah

(1976-04-09) April 9, 1976
Waterloo, Iowa
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNikole Hannah
Alma materUniversity of Notre Dame (BA)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MA)
OccupationJournalist
writer
Years active2003–present
Known forInvestigative journalism
Spouse(s)Faraji Hannah-Jones
Children1
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship
Pulitzer Prize (2020)

Early life

Hannah-Jones was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to father Milton Hannah, who is African-American, and mother Cheryl A. Novotny, who is of Czech and English descent.[6] Hannah-Jones is the second of three sisters.[7] In 1947, when her father was two years old, his family moved north to Iowa from Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, as did many other African-American families.[8]

Hannah-Jones and her sister attended almost all-white schools as part of a voluntary program of desegregation busing.[9] She attended Waterloo West High School, where she wrote for the high school newspaper and graduated in 1994.[10]

Hannah-Jones has a bachelor's degree in History and African-American Studies from the University of Notre Dame, which she received in 1998.

In November 1995, while a Sophomore at Notre Dame, Hannah-Jones penned a Letter to the Editor criticizing Fred Kelly's Observer article entitled "God Bless Columbus". She claimed "The white race is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world." and that "Christopher Columbus and those like him were no different then [sic] Hitler".[11]

She graduated from the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media with a master's degree in 2003, where she was a Roy H. Park Fellow.[12][13]

Career

In 2003, Hannah-Jones began her career covering the education beat, which included the predominantly African American Durham Public Schools, for the Raleigh News & Observer, a position she held for three years.[9]

In 2006, Hannah-Jones moved to Portland, Oregon, where she wrote for The Oregonian for six years. During this time she covered an enterprise assignment that included feature work, then the demographics beat, and then the government & census beats.[6]

In 2007, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots, Hannah-Jones wrote about its impact on the community for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission.[14]

From 2008 to 2009, Hannah-Jones received a fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies which enabled her to travel to Cuba to study universal healthcare and Cuba's educational system under Raul Castro.[15][16]

In 2011, she joined the nonprofit news organization ProPublica, which is based in New York City, where she covered civil rights and continued research she started in Oregon on redlining and in-depth investigative reporting on the lack of enforcement of the Fair Housing Act for minorities.[3] Hannah-Jones also spent time in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the decision in Brown v. Board of Education had little effect.[17]

Hannah-Jones with attendees after giving a talk in Rochester, New York

New York Times

In 2015, Hannah-Jones became a staff reporter for The New York Times.[5]

Hannah-Jones wrote the opening essay for the 1619 Project.[18] The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began August 14, 2019 . . . [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 our national narrative." [19]

Hannah-Jones has written about topics such as racial segregation, desegregation and resegregation in American schools[20][21] and housing discrimination, and has spoken about these issues on national public radio broadcasts.[22][23]

She writes to discover and expose the systemic and institutional racism perpetuated by official laws and acts.[24]

Her stories have been quoted in numerous other publications as being particularly important regarding race relations.[25] Hannah-Jones reported on the school district where teenager Michael Brown had been shot, one of the "most segregated, impoverished districts in the entire state" of Missouri.[26][27] Reviewer Laura Moser of Slate magazine praised her report on school resegregation, which showed how educational inequality may have been a factor in the unfortunate death of Brown.[28]

Hannah-Jones is a 2017 Emerson Fellow at the New America Foundation,[29] where she is working on a book on school segregation.[30] The book, The Problem We All Live With, is due out in June 2020 from Chris Jackson's One World imprint at Random House.[31]

Hannah-Jones is a 2017 award winner of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award."[32]

1619 Project

In 2019, Hannah-Jones launched the New York Times' 1619 Project with the goal of re-examining the legacy of slavery in the United States and timed for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.[4] The project featured contributions by the paper's writers, including essays on the history of different aspects of contemporary American life which the authors believe have "roots in slavery and its aftermath." It also includes poems, short fiction, and a photo essay. Originally conceived of as a special issue for August 20, 2019, it was soon turned into a full-fledged project, including a special broadsheet section in the newspaper, live events, and a multi-episode podcast series.

In 2020, she won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her work on The 1619 Project.[33][34] However, her paper has been criticized by historians like Gordon S. Wood and Leslie M. Harris for asserting without evidence that "one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery."[35][36][37] The article has been corrected in March 2020 and now reads "for some of the colonists".[38]

Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting

In early 2015, Nikole Hannah-Jones, along with Ron Nixon, Corey Johnson, and Topher Sanders, began dreaming of creating the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.[39] This organization was launched in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2016, with the purpose of promoting investigative journalism, which is the least common type of reporting.[39] Following in the footsteps of Ida B. Wells, this society encourages minority journalists to expose injustices perpetuated by the government and defend people who are susceptible to being taken advantage of.[39] This organization was created with much support from the Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.[39]

Controversy

Fireworks conspiracy

In June 2020, Hannah-Jones received criticism for quote-tweeting a Twitter thread that detailed a widely-circulated conspiracy theory claiming that the noticeable uptick in firework shows in Brooklyn and Queens were part of "a coordinated attack on Black and Brown communities by government forces".[40] Hannah-Jones later deleted the quote-tweet and apologized in an interview with the National Review, stating that the tweet was "an irresponsible use of my platform and beneath my own standards, which is why I deleted [it]".[41]

Modern Savagery letter

On June 25, 2020, the conservative website The Federalist published a letter that Hannah-Jones had submitted to The Observer, Notre Dame's student newspaper, in 1995.[42] In the letter, Hannah-Jones calls the "white race" the "biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world," and argues that "Christopher Columbus and those like him were no different then [sic] Hitler."[43] The letter also invokes the fringe theory that the Olmecs of ancient Mesoamerica were of partially African origin.[43]

Personal life

Hannah-Jones lives in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn with her husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, and their daughter.[44]

Awards

Works
  • Hannah-Jones, Nikole (2012). Living Apart How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law. New York: ProPublica. ISBN 978-1-453-25444-8. OCLC 825553231.
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See also

References
  1. Deutch, Gabrielle (April 2, 2018). "Writer Hannah-Jones discusses black education, desegregation, and privilege". YaleNews. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  2. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (April 9, 2019). "It's my birthday today and I really want you to celebrate with me by watching this amazing documentary on Reconstruction that I had the honor of taking part in. And, yes, I was born on the anniversary of the end of the Civil War. I mean, of course". Twitter. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  3. "About Us: Nikole Hannah-Jones". ProPublica. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  4. Barrus, Jeff (May 4, 2020). "Nikole Hannah-Jones Wins Pulitzer Prize for 1619 Project". Pulitzer Center. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  5. Silverstein, Jake (April 1, 2015). "Nikole Hannah-Jones Joins The New York Times Magazine". The New York Times Company. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  6. Rede, George (January 17, 2009). "Two faces of the black American experience". The Oregonian. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  7. "Life Legacy: Milton Hannah". Hagarty-Waychoff-Grarup. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  8. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (July 8, 2014). "Ghosts of Greenwood". ProPublica. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  9. Glass, Ira; Hannah-Jones, Nikole (July 31, 2015). "562: The Problem We All Live With". This American Life. WBEZ. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  10. "About". Nikole Hannah-Jones. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  11. Hannah, Nicole (November 21, 1995). "Modern savagery" (PDF). The Observer. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  12. McCoy, Nilagia (October 15, 2015). "Investigating racial injustice with Nikole Hannah-Jones". Journalist's Resource. Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  13. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (October 15, 2015). "Investigating Racial Injustice". Shorenstein Center. Harvard University. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  14. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (Spring 2008). "Part Three: Los Angeles/Watts – In 1965, Watts burned – and the people cheered" (PDF). Kerner Plus 40 Report. University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and Center for Africana Studies & the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies at North Carolina A&T State University. pp. 28–32. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  15. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (2009). "Stories Inside the Black-White Achievement Gap. Part 1: What it is and why it persists: Closing the achievement gap: A matter of national survival". Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  16. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (2009). "Stories Inside the Black-White Achievement Gap. Part 3: Cuba: How all children learn in a mostly-black land: Cuban School Officials Put Premium On Health Of Students". Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  17. Shaikh, Nermeen; Goodman, Amy; Hannah-Jones, Nikole (April 23, 2014). "Jim Crow in the Classroom: New Report Finds Segregation Lives on in U.S. Schools". Democracy Now. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  18. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (August 14, 2019). "The Idea of America". Retrieved July 17, 2020 – via NYTimes.com.
  19. The 1619 Project (August 14, 2019). "The 1619 Project". Retrieved July 17, 2020 – via NYTimes.com.
  20. Oputu, Edirin (May 2, 2014). "A laurel to ProPublica: A superlative investigative piece examines the resegregation of America's schools". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  21. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (February 27, 2015). "Gentrification doesn't fix inner-city schools". Grist. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  22. Demby, Gene (December 2, 2013). "A Battle For Fair Housing Still Raging, But Mostly Forgotten". NPR. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  23. Howard, Marcus E. (August 8, 2015). "Minnesota's achievement gap debated at NABJ conference". Star Tribune. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  24. Silverstein, Jake (October 13, 2017). "A Chat With MacArthur Genius Nikole Hannah-Jones". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  25. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (November 5, 2015). "'Apostrophes': Nikole Hannah-Jones on Race, Education and Inequality, at Longreads Story Night". Longreads Story Night. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  26. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (August 12, 2014). "How the Media Missed the Mark in Coverage of Michael Brown's Killing". Essence. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  27. Brown, Jeffrey; Hannah-Jones, Nikole; Cashin, Sheryll (August 11, 2015). "Why school districts like Michael Brown's have suffered 'rapid resegregation'". PBS. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  28. Moser, Laura (August 4, 2015). "There's Another Racist Tragedy in St. Louis That Nobody Talks About". Slate. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  29. "Previous Classes". New America. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  30. "Nikole Hannah-Jones". New America. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  31. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (June 2, 2020). The Problem We All Live with. One World. ISBN 9780399180569.
  32. Gibson, Caitlin (October 11, 2017). "MacArthur 'genius' grant winners step into the spotlight: 'Is this really happening?'". Retrieved May 5, 2020 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  33. Tracy, Marc (May 4, 2020). "The New York Times and the Anchorage Daily News Win Pulitzer Prizes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  34. "Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  35. "We Respond to the Historians Who Critiqued The 1619 Project". The New York Times. December 20, 2019. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  36. "Historian Gordon Wood responds to the New York Times' defense of the 1619 Project". www.wsws.org. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  37. "Opinion | I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me". POLITICO. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  38. Silverstein, Jake (March 11, 2020). "An Update to The 1619 Project". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  39. "Our Creation Story – IDA B. Wells Society". idabwellssociety.org. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  40. Tiffany, Kaitlyn (June 24, 2020). "The Boom in Fireworks Conspiracy Theories". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  41. Hoonhout, Tobias (June 22, 2020). "1619 Project Author Apologizes for Fanning Conspiracy Theory That 'Government Agents' Using Fireworks to 'Destabilize' BLM Movement". National Review. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  42. Davidson, Jordan (June 25, 2020). "In Racist Screed, NYT's 1619 Project Founder Calls 'White Race' 'Barbaric Devils,' "Bloodsuckers,' Columbus "No Different Than Hitler'". The Federalist. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  43. Hannah, Nicole (November 21, 1995). "Modern savagery" (PDF). The Observer (Vol. XXVII, No. 61). p. 7. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  44. Hannah-Jones, Nikole (March 2015). "A Letter From Black America: Yes, we fear the police. Here's why". Politico. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  45. "This American Life Wins December Sidney for Shining a Light on Racial Profiling in the Housing Market". The Sidney Hillman Foundation. December 2013. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  46. "Tobenkin Award: Past Winners – 2013". Columbia University. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  47. Turner, Aprill (April 23, 2015). "Nikole Hannah-Jones Named NABJ 2015 Journalist of the Year". National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  48. Prince, Richard (August 10, 2015). "NABJ "Journalist of Year" Says to Tell Blacks' Stories". Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  49. Walsh, Mark (April 21, 2015). "ProPublica Report on Resegregation Takes Top Education Writers' Award". Education Week. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  50. "61. Nikole Hannah-Jones". The Root. 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  51. Barron, James (February 14, 2016). "New York Times Journalists Among Winners of 2015 Polk Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  52. "2017 National Magazine Awards | ASME". asme.magazine.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  53. "Nikole Hannah-Jones '03 (M.A.) receives UNC's prestigious Distinguished Alumna Award". UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
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