To illustrate her point, Hannah-Jones asked the crowd how many thought George Washington’s teeth were made of wood - prompting some to raise hands or clap. “I’m trying to get us to remember the country that we were, not the country we’ve been taught that we were,” Hannah-Jones said. She said the date was long forgotten prior to her project, but that’s the type of information she wanted to unearth and reeducate the public. It was in that hometown that she learned of a ship of slaves being brought to America in 1619, roughly a year before the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower to the New World. The 1619 Project - which was published in 2019, 400 years after slaves came to America - also became a documentary series on Hulu, which she said Friday was recently screened in her Iowa hometown. Hannah-Jones’ introductory essay for the project earned her a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2020, and a book version of the project became a bestseller. The Weber State event was a part of its Browning Presents series.Ī New York Times Magazine staff writer, Hannah-Jones reminisced about her time growing up in Iowa and the experiences that led her to working in journalism, particularly focusing on racial inequality for much of her career.

Hannah-Jones - winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her 1619 Project, a venture that detailed the origins of slavery in America and its impact in the hundreds of years since - spoke at the campus with KUER RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio.

Nikole hannah jones on the 1619 project