Abraham Lincoln statues

[David Lockmiller]

I learned yesterday of the following letter hosted on the National Association of Scholars website on October 6, 2020.

Pulitzer Board Must Revoke Nikole Hannah-Jones' Prize

The letter begins with a statement by Peter Wood, President, National Association of Scholars:

The National Association of Scholars has agreed to host this public letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board. The letter calls on the Board to rescind the prize it awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones earlier this year. I am one of the 21 signatories. A hard copy has been mailed to the Pulitzer Committee as well as a digital copy.

The first paragraph of the letter reads:

We call on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2020 Prize for Commentary awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her lead essay in “The 1619 Project.” That essay was entitled, “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written.” But it turns out the article itself was false when written, making a large claim that protecting the institution of slavery was a primary motive for the American Revolution, a claim for which there is simply no evidence.

These eminent scholars also wrote near the end of their letter:

“The duplicity of attempting to alter the historical record in a manner intended to deceive the public is as serious an infraction against professional ethics as a journalist can commit.”

However, no mention is made in the written pronouncement to the Pulitzer Prize Board of the specious attack by Nikole Hannah-Jones upon the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln regarding the August 14, 1862 meeting at the White House on a black colonization proposal presented by President Lincoln to the Committee of five prominent free black men.