(TULSA)– Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project, will speak on Tuesday, May 31 at 7:00 pm at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. The free, in person conversation with Dr. Tiffany T. Crutcher, founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, and the Demanding A Just Tulsa Coalition, is open to the public. Media coverage is invited.
PEN America Tulsa is hosting the event along with Magic City Books and community partners The Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, The Black Wall Street Times, and Fulton Street Books and Coffee.
NOTE: Attendees must register in advance and will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the previous 48 hours. Face masks are encouraged.
The Terence Crutcher Foundation’s primary focus is criminal justice and policing reform, scholarships to African-American students, community, youth development, and policy advocacy.
Copies of The 1619 Project and Born on the Water by Hannah-Jones will be available for sale at the event.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine. Nikole got hooked on journalism when she joined her high school newspaper and began writing about students like her, who were bused across town as part of a voluntary school desegregation program. Her heroes are the race beat reporters, such as Ida B. Wells, Ethel Payne, Simeon Booker and Claude Sitton, whose fearless coverage helped move this nation closer to its promise. Prior to joining The New York Times, Nikole worked as an investigative reporter at ProPublica in New York City.
Dr. Tiffany T. Crutcher is a native of Tulsa, who was thrust into the national spotlight following the death of her twin brother, Terence Crutcher, who was shot by a Tulsa police officer, while holding his hands in the air. The murder of her brother compelled Tiffany to speak out against police brutality, particularly the killing of unarmed black men. She has chosen to turn her personal tragedy into an opportunity to bridge fear, mistrust, and help transform a justice system that has long perpetuated injustice dating back to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre where mobs of white rioters burned down her great grandmother’s prosperous community known as Black Wall Street.