Chicago City Wire

Members of the the Union League Club of Chicago have expressed their dismay of having Nikole Hannah-Jones as a speaker at its Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration.

Hannah-Jones, who controversially was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project, has been the source of controversy with several non-partisan renowned academics questioning her work for the New York Times.

In an email chain, Union League members questioned Hannah-Jones' inclusion as a speaker.

“Why – I have been repeatedly asked in recent weeks – has the creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, been invited to be the keynote speaker at the Union League’s upcoming observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday?” Brian Daley, a Public Affair Committee member of the Union League Club asked.

Hannah-Jones' signature work, the 1619 Project, was launched by the New York Times in 2019. It is an interpretation of American history with a focus on slavery. The premise of the work is that the founding of the nation actually began in 1619, the year slaves first arrived from Africa.

The project has been awash with inaccuracies pointed out by historians, with the reporting egregious enough that a group of historians banded together to ask the New York Times to revise the project.

Daley noted the New York Times issued a “humiliating update” to the 1619 Project after a groundswell of opposition from academics and journalists alike.

“It will be interesting to hear what Ms. Hannah-Jones has to say. Though whatever else her remarks might contain, we all should hope they do not attempt to resurrect or re-frame the demonstrated and divisive falsehoods promulgated in the 1619 Project,” Daley said.

Daley noted that he hopes Hannah-Jones does not continue to fuel discord in the community.

“Our city and our nation can ill afford more of the inflammatory and divisive untruths that have dominated public debate in recent years,” Daley said.

Chris Robling, a Republican strategist, also expressed his disdain for Hannah-Jones’s past reporting.

He was more stark in his assessment.

“Ms. Jones is a discredited activist, who would return her recognitions if she possessed a modicum of honor or intellectual integrity, or at least respect for her subject matter,” Robling wrote. “ That she lacks all three simply further disqualifies her. She’s unworthy of such association with Dr. King.”

Robling also labeled Hannah-Jones’s take on American history is disrespectful to King’s legacy.

“Ms. Hannah-Jones’ (implicit) theory must be that King, for the layered nuances of his understanding, depiction and use of the Founding, was ignorant of history. He did not know what he was talking about, and his view was simply insufficiently radical,” Robling said. “Once on this route, Ms. Hannah-Jones must reduce King Era Reforms to basically a conspiracy to prolong America’s abiding architectonic institutional racism under a patina of King’s rhetoric, an appropriation of King’s spirit to fulfill what she earnestly believes is America’s addiction to race hate."

Hannah-Jones efforts serve to weaken racial parity, not strengthen it, Robling said. 

“One needn’t be a student of dialectical and historical materialism — or speculative philosophy of history — to see clearly that Ms. Hannah-Jones, in fact, seeks not to STRENGTHEN our polity but to use false references to exacerbate remaining differences, thus WEAKENING it, for ideological purposes,” he said.  

Robling also questioned Hannah-Jones's payment for the appearance.

"I understand Ms. Hannah-Jones is being paid. Generally, the club does not pay speakers, so her fee is being met privately. But it is offensive to me, as a member, that other members may ‘rent’ the lectern for their viewpoint to be draped with the club’s stature, when club practice would otherwise preclude the event. It’s a noxious precedent," he said. 

Other communities have been questioning their connection to Hannah-Jones as well.

In October, a similar speaking engagement at Massachusetts school was canceled after community criticism of her work.

Similarly, questions surrounding Hannah-Jones’ work were raised when she was being considered for tenure in the journalism program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Hussman School of Media and Journalism namesake Walter E. Hussman Jr., the most prominent publisher in Arkansas, whose WEHCO Media owns and operates 10 newspapers holdings throughout the mid-South and Midwest, expressed his concern with Hannah-Jones’ work.

Subsequently Hannah-Jones, while asked to be the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, was not granted tenure at the institution.

She instead joined Howard University’s program. It was reported that $20 million in funding followed her to the school.