Reframing History Through Slavery's Legacy with Nikole Hannah-Jones

Monday, February 3, 2020 | 11:15 a.m.-12:30 pm

Toni and Martin Sosnoff Theater, John Cranford Adams Playhouse, South Campus

Hofstra University hosts New York Times Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones who was the inspiration for the New York Times pull out magazine, The 1619 Project. The viral project observes 400 years of American slavery with illuminating essays marking a call to action: to course correct our understanding of history, by centring the contributions of enslaved Americans.

Nikole Hannah-Jones was named a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow (one of only 24 people chosen, globally) for “reshaping national conversations around education reform” and for her reporting on racial re-segregation in our schools. This is the latest honor in a growing list: she’s won a Peabody, a Polk, and a National Magazine Award for her story on choosing a school for her daughter in a segregated city. Ms. Hannah-Jones covers racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine, and has spent years chronicling the way official policy has created--and maintains--racial segregation in housing and schools. Her deeply personal reports on the black experience in America offer a compelling case for greater equity. She has written extensively on the history of racism, school resegregation, and the disarray of hundreds of desegregation orders, as well as the decades-long failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act. She is currently writing a book on school segregation called The Problem We All Live With, to be published on the One World imprint of Penguin/Random House.

Presented in conjunction with the series The Legacy 1619-2019, recognizing the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to North America and the ongoing experience of African Americans.