Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Books and Essays

Award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones covers civil rights and racial injustice in the United States of America. After writing for her high school newspaper in Iowa, she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following her graduation from UNC, she began her professional career in earnest in North Carolina, where she covered Durham Public Schools for The News & Observer, a publication in Raleigh. Nikole wrote on such topics as racial identity and school segregation. She went on to contribute to Portland’s The Oregonian and New York City’s ProPublica. At the latter, she investigated the relationship between public policy and segregation in housing and schools. Nikole also regularly contributes to The New York Times Magazine.

Among Nikole’s awards and distinctions are a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, a Peabody Award, and a Knight Chair designation (in race and journalism) at the Howard University School of Communications. In 2016, she cofounded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. In 2020, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for The 1619 Project, which encompasses long-form journalism that, according to The New York Times, “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative.”

Written works by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones include:

• “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” (2016): In this essay for The New York Times Magazine, Nikole examines the effects of unequal school systems.
• “The Resegregation of Jefferson County” (2017): In this essay for The New York Times Magazine, Nikole covers an Alabama town that wanted to secede from its school district.
• “It Was Never About Busing” (2019): Nikole writes about various attempts at desegregation in the United States in this article for The New York Times.
• The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story (2021): Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein edited this book, which includes essays, poems, and works of fiction that are significant to Black history and examine the legacy of slavery in every aspect of our present society.
• The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (2021): This picture book by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson features illustrations by Nikkolas Smith. It tells the story of a student who learns about her enslaved ancestors while working on a family tree assignment.

There’s a lot of information that history textbooks don’t cover, including the ways in which systems of inequality continue to impact everyday life. With the MasterClass Annual Membership, get access to exclusive lessons from Angela Davis, Dr. Cornel West, Jelani Cobb, John McWhorter, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Sherrilyn Ifill to learn about the forces that have influenced race in the United States.