*Taxpayers in northern Virginia are allegedly angry that Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the controversial “1619 Project,” was paid $33,350 by a local library for a speaking engagement.
Hannah-Jones is slated to speak at McLean Community Center in Fairfax on Feb. 19 and the library is paying her $29,350 while the community center will cover the remainder, according to the Fairfax County Times.
The New York Post reports that the Fairfax County Library paid author Ibram X. Kendi a speaking fee of $22,50 last month. It appears he’s also a problem for the white folks in the area as he has penned books such as “How to Be an Antiracist,” “How to Raise an Antiracist” and “Antiracist Baby.”
“By my estimates, the Fairfax County Public Library is using over $60,000 in taxpayer funds to host Ibram Kendi and Nikole Hannah-Jones as speakers,” local resident William Denk told the Fairfax County Times. “I would like to see the Board of Supervisors reach out to Kendi and Hannah-Jones to ask that they return these funds to Fairfax County to help our local homeless population.”
READ MORE: Nikole Hannah-Jones Unpacks New ‘1619 Project’ Series Coming to Hulu | EUR Video Exclusive
Local resident Michael Albin, a member of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, said the library is misusing funds “for propaganda programming.”
“Now they’ve upped the ante by paying $33,350 to Nikole Hannah-Jones, not for her ideas, but for her star power,” Albin told the Fairfax County Times.
“She’s invited to sabotage American history and ideals at a library talk, and when? … get this, on Presidents’ Day weekend, a patriotic national holiday. If that isn’t sabotage of our values, I don’t know what is,” Albin added.
Jessica Hudson, the director of Fairfax County Library, gave a statement to The Post which, in part, read: “McLean Community Center (MCC) and the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) offer a variety of programs of interest to our diverse community.”
Hudson said “This year, for Black History Month, we are partnering to bring Pulitzer Prize Winner Nikole Hannah-Jones, who will speak on her work on the 1619 Project” and noted that “Admission to the event is free (registration is required) as are many MCC and FCPL events.”
Meanwhile, Hulu is now streaming a six-episode limited series based on the critically acclaimed “The 1619 Project.”
Per the official synopsis: In keeping with the original project, the series seeks to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. The episodes — “Democracy,” “Race,” “Music,” “Capitalism,” “Fear” and “Justice” — are adapted from essays from The New York Times No. 1 bestselling “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” and examine how the legacy of slavery shapes different aspects of contemporary American life.
As EURweb previously reported, the interactive 1619 Project was launched in August 2020 by The New York Times Magazine to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia. Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer for her work on the project.
EUR’s Ny MaGee spoke exclusively to Hannah-Jones, Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams, who serves as EP on the series, and Peabody Award-winning executive producer/showrunner Shoshana Guy to dish on what they hope viewers take away from this powerful new docu-series. Check out my exclusive conversation with the trio below.
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