Nikole Hannah-Jones on Reparations and Hope

July 2, 2026

“Frankly, I’m most interested in cash” ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

June 26, 2026

Greetings, Meteor readers,

In today’s newsletter, Brittany Packnett Cunningham brings us a fascinating slice of American history from her conversation with journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones. Plus, a brief tour of the news before you kick off your long weekend.

In a chair by a pool,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES AND BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM IN CONVERSATION AT VITAL VOICES HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. (PHOTO BY PURE BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY)

Last week, I got a chance to interview Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project, about reparations, as we get ready for America’s 250th birthday party. (And y’all know how I feel about that birthday party.) But here’s what really stuck with me. She talked about the optimism that’s hard for her to hold on to…except for when she thinks about Frederick Douglass. She spoke about his powerful rebuke, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July,” which he delivered mere months before emancipation, not knowing how much his words would help open up a pathway that people had been fighting for for years.

It also makes me think of his first wife, Anna Murray Douglass, who often gets left out of the story, as Black women so often do. Anna was born a free Black woman. It was the work of Anna’s hands, sewing and creating for wealthy white families, that gave Frederick Douglass the funds to escape enslavement. She bore their five children, ran their home, and even turned it into a stop on the underground railroad while Frederick Douglass was traveling the country preaching abolition. My friend Stevie Elem Rogers is constantly reminding us that whenever we speak about Frederick Douglass, we always need to speak Anna Murray Douglass’ name. Her and Frederick’s work, and Nikole’s words, remind me that no matter how impossible it seems, freedom is always on the horizon if we just keep working… and we just keep walking.

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation, which you can listen to in full here.

— Brittany Packnett Cunningham

Nikole Hannah-Jones: Since we are right at the cusp of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the “founding” of this nation, I want to remind us of what we come from—what we’re made of. Because even as hopeless as I often feel, I know I come from a people who had to believe that the impossible could be made manifest. My entire life…is a product of hope beyond despair.

In 1852, Frederick Douglass gets asked to deliver his famous oratory, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Now, this is 1852. Frederick Douglass is a fugitive from slavery. He is on the run, and yet he is out fighting the abolitionist cause in public and advertising where he’s gonna be.

If you know the story, he refuses to give the speech on the Fourth of July because he is offended. Like, how dare you ask me to come talk about your independence when four million of my people are in the worst bondage in the history of the world?

So he gives the speech [on July 5th], and 13 years later, slavery will fall.

Now, there would be no reason, no historical reason, no logical reason, to believe in 1852 that slavery could fall in 13 years. We were almost at the height of slavery in the United States, and yet it did. And he had to believe, and all of the abolitionists who fought had to believe, that it could happen, for it to happen.

DOUGLASS CIRCA 1877 (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

So while I don’t know if we will see reparations in our lifetime or not, the very first person to get reparations was Belinda Sutton in the 1780s when she sued her former master. The very first person to technically get what we call actual reparations [in the form of a lump sum payment rather than an annual pension] was a woman named Henrietta Woods, who sued her former master for recapturing her and selling her back into slavery, and she won that suit in 1870.

Callie House was fighting for reparations—for an ex-slave pension for all of those who spent their whole life working for free—and she was arrested for that. She ended up serving federal time for the audacity to call for reparations.

So Black folks have been asking for reparations for almost as long as slavery existed. Most of us never got them, but that doesn’t mean that we never will. So we do have to believe. We do know that we come from people who believe the impossible could be made manifest. On my dark days, I’m like, “Never.” But on my brighter days, I know it’s possible. And I know if anybody can do it, it’s us.

This conversation was recorded at Vital Voices Global Headquarters in Washington, D.C. For more from The Meteor’s ongoing look at reparations this summer, check out this episode of UNDISTRACTED with guest Adam Serwer and watch the full video of the Nikole Hannah-Jones conversation on YouTube, featuring Aria Florant of Liberation Ventures.

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