CULTURE | MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2022
CULTURE
Nikole Hannah-Jones headlines on redlining, 1619 Project at NC A&T by Michaela Ratliff
PHOTO BY CHERYL DIAZ MEYER
Journalist, professor, Pulitzer-winner and MacArthur Genius Nikole Hannah-Jones spoke to an audience at A&T on Saturday to speak about the federal practice of redlining, which segregated the country’s neighborhoods for a century, as well as reinforce the thesis of The 1619 Project, which puts the origins of the US at the arrival of the first slave ship, and Virginia as the political center of the Colonies.
N
12
ikole Hannah-Jones has been busy. Magazine, specializing in racial injustice. In partnership with journalists Ron The award-winning investigative journalist spoke at Harrison Nixon, Corey Johnson and Topher Sanders, Hannah-Jones founded the Ida Auditorium at NC A&T State University on May 21 to conclude a B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting in Memphis, TN, in 2016. The redlining discussion series hosted by FD Bluford Library, made organization aims to increase and retain the number of minority investipossible by a grant from North Carolina Humanities. gative journalists in the industry while seeking to The talk also took place in conjunction with the “educate news organizations and journalists on Greensboro Bound Literary Festival. how the inclusion of diverse voices can raise the We have to set the table R&B instrumentals played through the speakers caliber, impact and visibility of investigative jourthat redlining was created as the auditorium filled with excited chatter from nalism as a means of promoting transparency and attendees waiting for the program to begin. At the good government.” by the federal government. entrance of Harrison were copies of Hannah-Jones’ In 2020, Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize The 1619 Project available for purchase. Just outfor Commentary for her introductory essay to The side, an excited couple posed for a selfie with their 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, a collection of copy. On the stage were two blue chairs placed about three feet apart, a essays, poems and works of fiction written by Hannah-Jones and other distance possibly representing the familiarity of the conversation about to authors that suggests the history of the United States is not only defined take place. by the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but also by the Hannah-Jones is currently a domestic correspondent for New York Times arrival of the White Lion ship carrying enslaved African people to a British