'1619 Project' creator to speak in Evansville at Human Relations Commission dinner

EVANSVILLE — Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project and staff writer at The New York Times magazine, will be this year's keynote speaker for the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission Annual Dinner & Mayor’s Celebration of Diversity Awards.

The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 at Old National Events Plaza. It also serves as the 75th anniversary of the Human Relations Commission in Evansville.

The annual gathering recognizes businesses, organizations and individuals that embrace diversity. Tickets are $60 and can be purchased until Oct. 18 by calling the HRC at 812-436-4927 or online through the City of Evansville's website.

Hannah-Jones' The 1619 Project has been turned into a six-part docuseries on Hulu, and the book version was a New York Times bestseller.

The original reporting for New York Times magazine, as well as the following book, tell the story of a ship arriving in Virginia in 1619 with around 30 enslaved people from Africa.

"Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years," a blurb from Penguin Random House states. "This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States."

Hannah-Jones' reporting has been spent investigating racial inequality and injustice, which has earned her the Genius grant, a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award three times.

She's the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University and has founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy there.

Hannah-Jones ultimately chose Howard after the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill delayed a vote to grant her tenure at the school, despite support from other academics. The school's move led to other Black faculty considering leave, and protests from students.

In 2022 she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, afterschool literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: '1619 Project' creator to speak in Evansville later this month