Dean Barbara Krauthamer Interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning Creator of “The 1619 Project” Nikole Hannah-Jones
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Earlier this semester, Dean Barbara Krauthamer was in conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.
The event, “A Conversation about Truth, History, and ‘The 1619 Project’ with Nikole Hannah-Jones,” was held at the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts and boasted a packed auditorium for Hannah-Jones, who spoke about her research for The 1619 Project and the legacy of slavery in the U.S. politics, culture, and economy.
The 1619 Project launched in August 2019 with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, including essays and creative works by journalists, historians, and artists. The project illuminates the legacy of slavery in the contemporary United States, and highlights the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society. In the years since its launch, The 1619 Project and the conversations it has sparked have expanded through new resources, including a podcast, a book-length anthology, and a children's book.
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the university's school newspaper, covered the event in depth, writing:
The event began with a speech from Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy. He gave an introduction of Hannah-Jones and how her career at the New York Times has made her, “one of the most influential voices of our time.”
Dr. Barbara Krauthamer, dean of the College of the Humanities and Fine Arts and professor of history, moderated the conversation. Krauthamer specializes in the history of African-American slavery and emancipation in the United States.
In conversation with the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Krauthamer said Hannah-Jones, “has brought to the New York Times a different approach that centers Black people and the social and economic and political conditions of Black people’s lives in America.”
Hannah-Jones’ project on Black history began in 2019 as a pitch to her editor at “The New York Times.” She worried that the public would forget the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery and treat it like any other day.
“I just knew that like most days, most big moments in Black American history was likely going to pass with very little recognition or acknowledgement, that there would probably be some news articles about it,” said Hannah-Jones. “But there wouldn’t be this kind of large rush with ‘what does it mean that slavery is one of the oldest institutions in what became the United States?’”
She wanted to take a different approach in how this history was written and explain how society today has been shaped in “surprising ways.” Hannah-Jones felt that this story needed a different format apart from a book or one article. She and her editor decided to publish within the New York Times Magazine.
“I wanted to produce something that was not just a forced acknowledgement of that date, but really [grappled] with the way that that history has shaped our society and continues to shape our society,” said Hannah-Jones.
Hannah-Jones was asked if she was surprised by the negative reactions from people who are right-leaning, as well as the general reactions from the public. “There’s a difference between critique and trying to discredit,” said Hannah-Jones, “There’s a difference between saying we don’t agree with the framing, we think [there wasn’t] enough evidence to back this particular argument … I have no problem with that.”
She said that she took issue with those who tried to discredit the project and say that it was “invalid.” Hannah-Jones said some of the feedback which she and the other writers of the project had received accused them of, “not knowing what they’re talking about,” and that, “it should not be in the American school.”
When asked about the controversy that arose over teaching the “1619 Project” in schools, Hannah-Jones defended critical race theory in the education system by saying, “All [critical race theory] seeks to do is question how some 55-60 years after the Civil Rights Movement ends discrimination by law, why are Black people still on the bottom of everything we measure.”
Hannah-Jones also spoke about the intersection between racial inequality and the American capitalist economy. “I’m not trying to repair capitalism, but I am trying to repair the wealth gap that capitalism created,” she said.