Pulitzer Prize winner launching literacy program in Iowa

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for her writing on race is joining with educators in Iowa to launch a free community-based after-school literacy program in her hometown. Nikole Hannah-Jones tells the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that the 1619 Freedom School will hold a soft launch in October at the Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence with a small number of students before opening the full program in January at the Masonic Temple in downtown Waterloo. The program will serve fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Waterloo Community Schools. Hannah-Jones rose to fame with The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which reframed U.S. history through a racial equity lens and helped mainstream the idea of critical race theory.