Join Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Creator of the 1619 Project, for a Conversation About the True Contributions of Black Americans

Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and staff writer for The New York Times Magazine Nikole Hannah-Jones will share her experiences and writings in an upcoming campuswide conversation on Friday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. The event, which is co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, will take place at the Syracuse University Art Museum.

More information and registration information can be found on the University Calendar. The event can also be accessed via Zoom.

Hannah-Jones will highlight the importance of reframing American history within the context of enslavement and the true contributions of Black Americans. The New York Times’s 1619 Project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States by examining slavery’s modern legacy and reframing the way we understand this history and the contributions of black Americans to the nation, according to Hannah-Jones’ website.

Jessica Lynn Elliott, a fourth-year Ph.D. history student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, will be the moderator for the discussion.

“We are all active participants in the story being written, but in the story of the U.S., we must revisit the opening chapter and amplify the voices and celebrate the contributions of Black people, whom without, our current chapter does not exist,” says Elliott, who is also a curatorial assistant for the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries,

Kal Alston, professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Education and a member of the Academic Leadership for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (ALDEIA), encourages campus community members to attend, regardless if they have read the 1619 Project or not.

“This conversation will help us all better understand American history and how far back some of these ideas related to Black Americans and our collective history goes,” Alston says. “It can seem that the issues of race and our collective history are coming out of nowhere, but in fact, they’re coming out of a shared set of experiences and orientations, and Nikole Hannah-Jones’s unique perspective and experience will help us better understand that.”

Suzette M. Meléndez, teaching professor and associate dean for equity and inclusion academic affairs in the College of Law, also invites the campus community to join in this event that will add to the continuing conversation surrounding our nation’s shared history.

“Professor Hannah-Jones’ visit is of great significance to the national conversation about the 1619 Project, the contributions of Black and brown people to America’s development and to our collective history as a nation,” says Meléndez, who is also a member of the ALDEIA. “It is a timely response to the apparent confusion regarding what Critical Race Theory actually is and how it can tell a more comprehensive account of our history in ways that can guide us in moving forward more productively as a nation.”

Along with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the event’s co-sponsors include the Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Student Living, Syracuse University Libraries, the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, College of Law, School of Education, School of Architecture and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided