Update (May 20, 2021): After Wednesday’s upsetting announcement to deny tenure to award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, dozens of faculty and community members protested at the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting.

Students, faculty and journalists stood in solidarity to express their outrage on Thursday. Hannah-Jones’ future position as Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the university was expected to come with a tenured position, but the board recently changed plans, giving her a fixed five-year contract instead, The News & Observer reported. 

The decision came as an insult to many. Protesters began filing into the large meeting room Thursday morning where trustees were seated, spaced out. They held up signs that read “#BlackWomenMatter,” ''Nikole Hannah Jones is all of us” and “UNC = Klan University lovers of racist ignorance!!” 

Some told the trustees “Shame on you” while others chanted the song “We Shall Overcome.” According to The News & Observer, they continued singing even when Board Chairman Richard Stevens said they’d be excused for being disruptive.  

In one powerful moment, the incoming student body president at UNC, Lamar Richards, said hatred and bigotry are at the root of the university’s careless decision-making. 

“If there is one thing that we have learned from the past year, it is that flexibility, patience and understanding are all virtues that one must hold, especially in navigating events as historic and inequitable as a global pandemic,” Richards said. “As well as the ongoing hatred and bigotry in our state and across the country towards Black individuals, towards individuals in the Asian American community, towards our transgender friends and community members.” 

His speech was followed with praise although most protesters began to file out once he was finished.  

Kim Talikoff, a member at Chapel Hill who came to protest with a friend, said the deal made with Hannah-Jones should not be accepted because of how it greatly differs from how most Knight professors are treated.  

“I care deeply about freedom of speech and freedom of thought. I trust people to think critically, and I don’t think the university is a place where people ought to be afraid of ideas,” Talikoff said. 

LeRoi Brashears, a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP, said the biggest issue with UNC is their history with racism which it often tries too hard to ignore. He said the powerful people who continually choose to not speak on the university’s history with slavery need to be rooted out from its upper management. 

“Every time you see them come to a juncture like this, they default to some spectacularly bigoted and racist move,” Brashier said. 

He added that his comments were not on behalf of the NAACP.

Outside of the meeting, members of the UNC Black Caucus came to support the protest. One member held a sign that read, “I can give 1,619 reasons why Hannah-Jones should be tenured.” 

The sign was a nod to “The 1619 Project,” a deep exploration in the history of slavery which Hannah-Jones created with The New York Times Magazine in 2019. 

Following yesterday’s announcement, the Knight Chair President Alberto Ibargüen came out with a statement to express his disappointment with UNC's decision, Yahoo Finance reported. 

“It is not our place to tell UNC or UNC/Hussman who they should appoint or give tenure to,” Ibargüen said. “It is, however, clear to us that Hannah-Jones is eminently qualified for the appointment and would urge the trustees of the University of North Carolina to reconsider their decision within the timeframe of our agreement.”.   

According to WRAL News, some conservative groups like Carolina Partnership for Reform have believed Hannah-Jones to be more of a civil rights reporter than one who should be a teacher. 

Over 30 faculty members have since signed a letter to defend her. One of the professors who did, Dr. Deb Aikat, said although the issue is controversial, Hannah-Jone’s clear knowledge of journalism should be enough to 

"Anybody would try to hire a Pulitzer Prize winner and bring that knowledge to our classroom," Aikat said. “I think you should allow some scholarly investigations into history and people will have differences, but this is like stifling a voice."

Original (May 20, 2021): The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill has decided not to tenure a role that will be occupied by lauded Black journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones.  

Hannah-Jones was on track to teach at her alma mater in the Hussman School of Media and Journalism as Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism this July, a role that typically comes with the expectation of tenure, 19th News reported.  However, the plan will not come to fruition with the school’s seeming sudden change of heart, which many have deemed to be based on anti-academic freedom ideologies.

She's instead being offered a fixed-term, five-year contract. The two people to precede Hannah-Jones in the role were both offered tenure according to The New York Times. 

Since penning the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The 1619 Project" for The New York Times, conservatives have long been in a fight pitted against the journalist. 

“It’s disappointing, it’s not what we wanted and I am afraid it will have a chilling effect,” said Susan King, dean of Hussman.

According to King, the UNC Board of Trustees was hesitant to comply with the journalism department's recommendation of tenure for Hannah-Jones because the veteran reporter doesn't have a background in academia, The News & Observer reported.

Another UNC faculty member also lamented the lack of tenure. 

“Our faculty colleagues in UNC are troubled and tormented that conservative ire has forced the UNC Board of Trustees to back down from offering a tenured position to an acclaimed journalist like Nikole Hannah-Jones,” Deb Aikat, an associate professor told The News & Observer. 

In April, UNC said the investigative journalist would be filling the position after she completed a rigorous tenure process at UNC last summer. But it was conservative voices that called to the school to openly criticize the plan that spurred their decision to back out per North Carolina Policy Watch. 

It faced heavy backlash as many believed it didn’t properly recount the facts of history, The Atlantic reported. In February, a bill that would ban the project in schools was advanced in Iowa. Similar things have transpired in Arkansas and Arizona. The bill is heavily backed by Senate Republicans, as Blavity previously reported. Former President Donald Trump even threatened to defund schools who taught the project. 

Together, the board of trustees at UNC and legislature sided with the negating views despite countless recommendations and vigorous support for Hannah-Jones.

In their frustrations, several prominent Black journalists took to social media to share their thoughts on the explosive issue. 

Jelani Cobb, a staff writer for the New Yorker lambasted the decision. 

Errin Haines, the editor for 19th News, pointed out that the project believed to have led UNC, a heavily right-winged institution, to reenact their decision, was lauded by an HBCU.

Wesley Lowery, who contributes to The Marshall Project, called it an attack on the freedom of the press.

The journalists were among countless people to condemn the move from the university. On Wednesday Night, Hannah-Jones took to Twitter with a brief statement. 

In a letter signed by more than two dozen UNC faculty members, including the dean and other members of the university, it was demanded that the tenured position be given back to Hannah-Jones. They called the university's decision a failure, 19th News reported.   

“Hannah-Jones’ 20-plus year distinguished record in the field of journalism surpasses expectations for a tenured position,” the letter said.  

Associate Professor Deb Aikat said the university has now set a dangerous precedent. 

“Our faculty colleagues in UNC are troubled and tormented that conservative ire has forced the UNC Board of Trustees to back down from offering a tenured position to an acclaimed journalist like Nikole Hannah-Jones,” Aikat said.

Hannah-Jones is widely known for her reporting on civil rights and racial justice. She’s built a reputation for intertwining truth and constructive analysis. The 45-year-old has also been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant and is the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting at UNC which serves reporters of color, according to her website. 

The student body president of UNC, Lamar Richards, said he fully supports the veteran journalist. 

“I’ve heard people say that she shouldn’t work here, that they disagree with her beliefs, that they disagree with what she has to say,” he said, NC Policy Watch reported. “But I believe, and the chancellor I believe has said and supports this publicly, that our university is a place for the free flow of ideas, for different ideologies, for people who everyone might not agree with and whose work might not please everyone.” 

As for Hannah-Jones’ future at UNC, the board is expected to discuss her position on Thursday, according to NC Policy Watch.

Journalism-ProfessorNikole-Hannah-JonesThe-1619-ProjectUNC-Chapel Hill