trib logo
ad-image
ad-image

Arlington, Va. library paid 1619 Project author $40k for speech

Nikole Hannah-Jones
by WorldTribune Staff, November 2, 2022

A Virginia public library paid 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones, a former New York Times journalist, $40,000 for a 45-minute speech, a report said.

The fee paid by the Arlington Public Library to Hannah-Jones caused the library to exceed its budget by $7,500, The Daily Wire reported on Oct. 27.

Hannah-Jones, who used part of the speech to promote her new book, also added a clause to the agreement that there would be no recording of her speech, with a $100,000 penalty if the agreement were to be violated, the report said.

Hannah-Jones was paid $40,000 to give a 45-minute talk on Sept. 20 as part of a three-hour event at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, Virginia, which is just eight miles from Howard University, where she became a tenured professor with the help of $20 million in donations from the MacArthur, Knight, and Ford foundations.

Including travel time, the fee amounts to approximately $10,000 an hour.

Michael Chamberlain, of the government watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust, told The Daily Wire that Hannah-Jones's fee was a very high for a local library.

"The $40,000 they paid to one particular speaker, which put the program over budget, is an eye-popping amount for a local library to spend on such a controversial figure," Chamberlain said.

The 1619 Project was a long-form "journalism" project that first appeared in The New York Times Magazine in August of 2019. Hannah-Jones's premise was that the founding of the United States was built around protecting the right to own slaves, a premise which many historians have debunked.

Action . . . . Intelligence . . . . Publish

nhjones by is licensed under Video Image YouTube

Get latest news delivered daily!

We will send you breaking news right to your inbox

This website uses essential cookies for site operation. We would also like to set optional cookies to help us improve our site and to analyze web traffic, as described in the Privacy Compliance. You may accept or reject the use of optional cookies by clicking the Accept or Reject button.

ACCEPT
REJECT