January 24, 2025
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize–winning creator of The 1619 Project, will speak at Susquehanna University at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 12, in Weber Chapel’s Auditorium. Following the lecture, copies of The 1619 Project and Born on the Water will be available for purchase.
‘The 1619 Project’ and Black History Project at SU
Hannah-Jones is best known for her creation of the The 1619 Project — the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book and 2024 Emmy Award–winning Hulu docuseries — as well as the co-author of the 1619 Project children’s book, Born on the Water.
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s origins from that point in time, placing the consequences of slavery and the experiences and contributions of Black Americans at the center.
Susquehanna has embarked on its own journey of reframing its history centering on Black experiences. Begun last year, the Black History Project at SU is a docuseries collaboration among faculty, staff, students and alumni that will tell the untold Black history of Susquehanna University, starting from its founding to the present time. Current Build Collaborative fellows Emma Martz ’27, Alex Vidal Perez ’25, Jaxton Suber ’27 and Elizabeth Wilson ’27 are focused on pre-production for the first episode.
About Hannah-Jones
Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice. In addition to the Pulitzer, her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “Genius Grant,” a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times.
A writer for The New York Times, Hannah-Jones also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy. She is also the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting and in 2022, she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, after-school literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa.
Event details
Tickets are not required for the event, which is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. A security check will be performed at entrances, and attendees are asked not to bring bags, purses or water bottles inside the venue.
The event is sponsored by the Ottoway Daily Item Lectureship in Public Affairs, established by Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. in 1977 to bring to the Susquehanna campus and central Pennsylvania individuals of outstanding reputation in the fields of journalism and public affairs.