Nikole Hannah-Jones: The Message

"My message would be that education is liberation," Nikole Hannah-Jones tells Ebro on the latest episode of The Message. "There's a reason that so many people are fighting so hard to keep our children ignorant of the truth about this nation and its past. Once you know, you become empowered, and once people are empowered, they won't accept the conditions in which we live." Journalist, educator and activist Hannah-Jones was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for the New York Times-published 1619 Project, an ambitious and world-shaking endeavour that centres the contributions of Black Americans and slavery within the narrative of the history of the United States. Hannah-Jones made headlines again recently after accepting a tenured teaching position at historically Black institution Howard University after her previous position at the University of North Carolina met with backlash from board members. For her The Message playlist, Hannah-Jones compiled selections from artists like Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and others whose music has meant nothing less than liberation to Black people since first being released. "I come from working-class folks in Waterloo, Iowa—people who worked in beef packing plants, that sort of thing," Hannah-Jones says. "And the weekend was when, to me, you came and got your freedom. You cleaned up, you wiped all that blood from the animals off your hands and put some lotion on that ash and pulled out the albums and just partied all night."