The author behind the contentious 1619 Project has ignited fresh controversy by using a prominent New York Times annual feature to eulogise a convicted cop killer and former FBI Most Wanted terrorist.
A Controversial Tribute Sparks Outrage
Nikole Hannah-Jones devoted her section of The Lives They Lived feature to Assata Olugbala Shakur, who died in Havana, Cuba, in September 2025 aged 78. Shakur remained a fugitive from US justice at the time of her death, having fled the country over four decades ago following the May 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
Shakur, alongside two other members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), was convicted for her role in a gun battle initiated during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Authorities stated she fired the first shot and several others. After being found guilty of Foerster's murder in 1979, she escaped from prison and was later granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984.
Romanticising a Fugitive's Story
In her roughly 1,100-word tribute, Hannah-Jones, 49, chose to highlight Shakur's activism rather than her criminal conviction. She described Shakur's escape, writing that the fugitive 'had been hidden in the United States for several years by a sort of Underground Railroad before being smuggled into Cuba and granted asylum as a political prisoner.' The Times staff writer further likened Shakur to an 'escaped slave.'
Notably, the piece omitted the name of Trooper Foerster, who was 34 years old and left behind a wife and a three-year-old son. Instead, it focused on 'the lore of Assata Shakur,' her role as godmother to rapper Tupac Shakur, and romanticised how she became the first woman on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. It also repeated Shakur's disputed claim that her hands were in the air and she did not shoot anyone during the incident.
Backlash and Broader Context
The tribute has provoked significant online criticism. A reporter for reason magazine labelled it 'offensively bad,' questioning how it cleared editorial review, in a post viewed over 300,000 times. The National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru pointed out the omission of the victim's name.
Hannah-Jones is best known as the driving force behind The 1619 Project, a revisionist historical work published by the Times in 2019 that frames American history around the consequences of slavery. The project, which suggests the US is fundamentally racist and seeks to re-centre the African-American experience, has faced intense scrutiny from many historians.
This incident follows other controversial statements from Hannah-Jones, a tenured professor at Howard University, including claims that Latino 'anti-blackness' contributed to Donald Trump's 2024 election win and that tipping is an inherently racist practice.
