"I see my work as forcing us to confront our hypocrisy, forcing us to confront the truth that we would rather ignore."
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark The 1619 Project, now a Hulu original docuseries.
Originally a special project of The New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project book debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. Nikole also co-wrote a children's book, called Born on the Water, which also debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The 1619 Project is now a six-part docuseries streaming on Hulu and won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Nikole is a believer in Black institutions, and is the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting at Morehouse College and founder of the 1619 Freedom School in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and the Center for Journalism & Democracy at Howard University, where she is the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism.
Nikole lectures all over the U.S. and across the globe on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its legacy, including giving a speech before the United Nations General Assembly in 2022 during the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
"WHILE HISTORY IS WHAT HAPPENED,IT IS ALSO, JUST AS IMPORTANT, HOW WE THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT WE UNEARTH AND CHOOSE TO REMEMBER ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED."
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story and Born on the Water debuted at #1 when they published November of 2021, and now the book has been turned into a six-part documentary series on Hulu.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is a dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, offering a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. Born on the Water is a lyrical picture book in verse chronicling the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newberry honor-winning author Renée Watson. With powerful text and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.
And now, the six-part documentary series brings to the screen six chapters from the book, DEMOCRACY, RACE, MUSIC, CAPITALISM, FEAR and JUSTICE.
If the poignant genius of Ida B. Wells and the effervescent fierceness of Beyoncé could co-exist in one person, Hannah-Jones is the writing, truth-telling, fire-starting prototype.