The AP Interview: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ warning on democracy

By AARON MORRISON
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Pulitzer Prize-winning Black journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones said she is clear-eyed about her mission to force a reckoning around the nation’s self-image. But she said intense backlash to her work shows the nation is in “a very frightening time.” Hannah-Jones is creator of the much-scrutinized 1619 Project, a groundbreaking collection of essays on race that first appeared in a special issue of The New York Times Magazine in 2019. Now in book form, “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” and “Born on the Water,” a picture storybook collaboration, each have spent consecutive weeks atop the Times bestseller list since their Nov. 16 release.