By Kia Morgan
COVID-19 broadcasting on the news 24/7, with fake news, death tolls, and new information coming out rapidly, it can be overwhelming and making day to day activities stressful. Many are searching and looking for good news, juicy gossip, and soul searching just to take the focus off the dreary news. So it was nice to get some positive news to interrupt the negative.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, an award-winning investigative reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer for Commentary as the creator of the groundbreaking The 1619 Project.
The Pulitzer Center states, “Highlights of the Center’s 1619 Project education work include:
Tens of thousands of students in all 50 states engaged with the curricular resources, which include reading guides, lesson plans, and extension activities.
Tens of thousands of copies of the magazine were shipped by The New York Times and the Pulitzer Center to students and educators at K-12 schools, community colleges, HBCUs, and other campuses.
Five school systems adopted the project at broad scale: Buffalo, New York; Chicago; Washington, DC; Wilmington, Delaware; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.”
What is a Pulitzer Prize you ask? It is an American prize awarded to Americans for particular work in the arts. It's named after Jewish, Hungarian-born, American newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, who awarded the prizes, home of Columbia University, with two million dollars to help create a journalism school.
It’s amazing to see black women getting their flowers now. AMT has first-hand knowledge of the hard work Hannah-Jones has put into making what the 1619 Project is today. Representation matters and it’s beneficial to show the black community we are more than stereotypes and headliners and hashtags.
Congratulations Nikole! AMT is so proud of you, we’ll continue to support you and follow your work. This is just the beginning of 2020, we cant wait to see what the next 7 months have in store for you.
📸:Original Image from NY Times