Nikole Hannah-Jones Launches 1619 Freedom School, A Literacy Program In Iowa

Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has officially launched the 1619 Freedom School, a free, community-based after-school literacy program in Waterloo, Iowa.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported that the school is planning to host a soft launch in October at the Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence, utilizing 30 fourth- and fifth-grade students students before fully opening the program in January at the Masonic Temple. 

“We’re going to do a soft launch starting in October at Cunningham with a small number of students,” said Hannah-Jones.

“We will accept any student who has a need up to our capacity. We don’t discriminate based on students’ race,” she added. Via testing scores, “we know that the overwhelming need is for Black students.”

The curriculum for the program, “is teaching literacy through Black history, We believe that all children benefit from learning Black American history because that’s American history.”

Related Story: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Tenure Thwarted By White Fragility

In 2022 the curriculum is expected to be available at no cost to anyone in the country.

“The 1619 Freedom School is built on the understanding that for a people for whom it was once illegal to learn to read and write, education is a revolutionary act,” said Hannah-Jones.

“A quality education has been the key to my success and I wanted to give back to the community that raised me and to the children whose opportunities may be limited but who have potential that is limitless. Through this school, we will provide our students the type of education and support they have always deserved.”

Hannah-Jones became famous and won the Pulitzer Prize for her work on the “1619 Project,” which highlighted U.S. history through the lens of critical race theory. 

Despite this, she made it known that the program “has nothing to do with the 1619 Project at all” and does not teach critical race theory.