'1619 Project' founder Nikole Hannah-Jones admits putting ideology ahead of her own daughter's education

From the Newshound archive · first published 20 September 2026 · last updated 21 September 2026.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the journalist behind the controversial 1619 Project, has admitted she sacrificed her daughter Najya's education to make a political point about school segregation. In a New York Times Magazine essay, she confessed she enrolled Najya in two struggling Brooklyn public schools despite having the money and connections to access the city's best schools. 'Now I felt overcome with regret. Najya deserved better,' she wrote. 'I had not chosen her.'

Najya, now 16 and behind her peers, confronted her mother in a furious row: 'You had money to send me to one of the best schools, and you chose not to?'

Hannah-Jones bought a $1.5 million Bed-Stuy brownstone in 2018, confirming the family had the financial means for elite schooling all along.

Conservative commentators say the essay is an unintentional argument for school choice — the very policy Hannah-Jones has long opposed.