Dozens of students, faculty, and community members protested outside the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting Thursday in opposition of the board’s decision to deny tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who developed The New York Times‘ “The 1619 Project.”
According to multiple published reports, about 50 people were gathered outside the meeting, holding signs that supported Hannah-Jones being granted tenure. Around 40 members of the school’s faculty have also signed a formal letter online in support of Hannah-Jones.
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“The 1619 Project” tells the story of slavery in the history of the United States and was originally published in print form in 2019 with supplemental material added online. Despite being highly acclaimed, the long-form journalism collection has also received criticism from conservative groups. One, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), wrote in December 2020 that the project is “infecting our schools” and had influenced legislation that limits the teaching of critical race theory.
Last month, UNC announced that its Hussman School of Journalism & Media was hiring Hannah-Jones as its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. That position is endowed by the The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, but the foundation’s president issued a statement saying he hoped UNC would reconsider its decision to offer Hannah-Jones that position—a contract one—in favor of tenure.
The Board of Trustees has not addressed why members did not act on the tenure recommendation. Some feel the school is bowing to pressure from conservatives, and many professors, journalists, and academics have criticized UNC.
This includes Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton and current Berkeley professor. He wrote on Twitter: “Cancel-culture conservatives on the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees have denied tenure to Prof. Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, because she’s a Black woman who tells the truth about our country.”
Cancel-culture conservatives on the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees have denied tenure to Prof. Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, because she’s a Black woman who tells the truth about our country.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 20, 2021
The online statement signed by the school’s faculty members said that failure to grant Hannah-Jones tenure “unfairly moves the goal posts and violates longstanding norms and established processes.” It also said, “This failure is especially disheartening because it occurred despite the support for Hannah-Jones’s appointment as a full professor with tenure by the Hussman dean, Hussman faculty and university.”
Hannah-Jones earned a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina in 2003 and a MacArthur fellowship in 2017. She has not directly addressed the controversy publicly. However, on Wednesday, she wrote on Twitter: “I’ve been staying off of here today, but just know I see you all and I am grateful.”
I’ve been staying off of here today, but just know I see you all and I am grateful.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) May 20, 2021
