An Evening with Pulitzer Prize Winner Nikole Hannah-Jones

Magic City Books and PEN America Tulsa along with community partners The Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, The Black Wall Street Times, and Fulton Street Books and Coffee were proud to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones for a free, in-person program on Tuesday, May 31 at 7:00 pm at the Booker T. Washington High School, in Tulsa Oklahoma. Watch the recording of this extraordinary conversation here.

This conversation was moderated by Dr. Tiffany T. Crutcher, the founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, and the Demanding A Just Tulsa Coalition. The foundation’s primary focus is criminal justice and policing reform, providing scholarships to African-American students, community, youth development, and policy advocacy.

The event welcomed more than 1,000 guests, who registered in advance for this free program. All guests were required to show proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test from within the previous 48 hours, and were asked to come prepared with that documentation.

The proper wearing of face masks was encouraged and appreciated.

Copies of The 1619 Project and Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones were available for sale at the event.

WATCH RECORDING HERE

About Nikole Hannah-Jones

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, where she spent three years chronicling the way official policy created and maintains segregation in housing and schools. Before that, she reported for the largest daily newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., where she covered numerous beats, including demographics, the census, and county government.

Nikole started her journalism career covering the majority-black Durham Public Schools for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. During her three years there, she wrote extensively on issues of race, class, school resegregation, and equity.

Nikole is a native Iowan, a child produced by the hopes of both the Great Migration and those who migrated from foreign shores. She has also lived in Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and Oregon. Now she is Bed-Stuy fly in Brooklyn.

About Dr. Tiffany T. Crutcher

Dr. Tiffany T. Crutcher is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma who was thrust into the national spotlight following the death of her twin brother, Terence Crutcher, who was shot by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 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. Dr. Crutcher has remained committed to organizing coalitions throughout the country that promote the interests of minority communities. Crutcher is the Founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation and the Demanding A Just Tulsa Coalition. The foundation’s primary focus is criminal justice and policing reform, providing scholarships to African-American students, community, youth development, and policy advocacy.

Crutcher is a proud HBCU Graduate, where she received a BA, MS, and Clinical Doctorate from Langston University and Alabama State University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and a graduate of the James W. Wright Leadership Development Institute in Montgomery, AL. Dr. Crutcher currently serves on the Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, Metcares Foundation, Historic Greenwood Mainstreet, and Justice for Greenwood Foundation Boards of Directors. Crutcher is also a member of the United Justice Coalition and a founding member of Sisters of the Movement, both National organizations.

In 2018, Dr. Crutcher created the Tulsa Community Remembrance Coalition in partnership with Mr. Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights in American Society. This vital partnership is committed to changing the narrative about race in America. The Tulsa Community Remembrance Coalition under the leadership of Dr. Crutcher, will lead a mass effort to memorialize the victims of lynching and racial terror in Oklahoma and empower citizens to confront issues of racism with the goal of overcoming racial inequality through the building of the City of Tulsa’s first comprehensive memorial and community remembrance work.

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