Nikole Hannah-Jones/Photo Courtesy of Instagram
Nikole Hannah-Jones was considered for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a tenured position at the North Carolina university. More than qualified for the role, the acclaimed journalist is a Pultizer Prize winner and a longtime staff writer for the New York Times.
Among her many accolades is her start of the 1619 Project, an ongoing journalism project with New York Times Magazine designed to address the state of the Black community post-slavery. The project’s name comes from the year often referred to as the beginning of U.S. slavery.
Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project received pushback from Conservatives who disagreed with her political coverage, affecting her hiring decision at UNC, NC Policy Watch reports. Due to UNC’s Board of Governors being mostly Republican, it made for a complicated situation.
According to NC Policy Watch, UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees “chose not to take action on approving Hannah-Jones’s tenure,” changing their initial plans following the Conservative pushback. Instead, Hannah-Jones was offered a five-year contract as “Professor of the Practice” and will be reviewed for tenure when it’s over.
Hannah-Jones began UNC’s tenure application process last summer. NC Policy Watch reported that the seasoned journalist had support from both the faculty and tenure community and that things were initially looking positive for her. Ultimately, though, the board decided not to move forward with their approval.
“I’m not sure why and I’m not sure if that’s ever happened before,” UNC Hussman Dean Susan King told NC Policy Watch about the move, adding, “It’s disappointing, it’s not what we wanted, and I am afraid it will have a chilling effect,”
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Facing backlash for their decision, members of the Carolina Black Caucus gathered to protest outside of Chapel Hill’s Carolina Inn, where the UNC Board of Trustees were set to meet Thursday morning, May 20.
Others took to social media to drag the university for denying Hannah-Jone’s tenure.
“It’s hard to see UNC’s decision to deny tenure to Nikole Hannah Jones as anything other than an attack on press freedom,” 60 Minutes correspondent Wesley Lowery tweeted. “She is being penalized for producing journalism that powerful people do not like and have worked for years to silence.”
Fellow journalist Mara Gray also tweeted her frustration at the UNC decision, tweeting, “When we say you have to be twice as good and even then it often isn’t enough, this is what we mean.”
UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President and board member Lamar Richards wrote a public statement Friday, May 21, urging the Board of Trustees to vote on Hannah-Jones’ Knight Chair position.
“If we truly want transparency, harmony, and success at Carolina, you all will act swiftly to get the matter of her tenure before our Board in a special called meeting to discuss further the merits of her application and candidacy – in open session (if legally allowed, once receiving her consent),” Richards wrote, adding “We have a duty to this University to uphold the values we all hold so dear.”
Tweeting about the support she’s been receiving in the wake of UNC’s decision, Hannah Jones wrote, “I have been overwhelmed by all the support you all have shown me. It has truly fortified my spirit and my resolve. You all know that I will OK. But this fight is bigger than me, and I will try my best not to let you down.”
Let us know what you think about the UNC snub in the comments and reactions below.