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Nikole Hannah Jones, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who created the 1619 Project for the New York Times, is considering taking legal action against her alma mater, University of North Carolina. She is slated to start her new job as a journalism professor in July, but when she was denied tenure, she sought legal representation and accused the school of discrimination. Instead of being given tenure status, she was given a five-year contract with the possibility of a tenure review.
“I have retained legal counsel to respond to the Board of Trustees’ failure to consider and approve my application for tenure—despite the recommendation of the faculty, dean, provost and chancellor—at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, which was a condition of my employment as a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism,” Jones said in a statement. “I had no desire to bring turmoil or a political firestorm to the university that I love, but I am obligated to fight back against a wave of anti-democratic suppression that seeks to prohibit the free exchange of ideas, silence Black voices and chill free speech.”
Her legal representation, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, stated that Jones’ credentials exceed those of other UNC Knight Chairs and that her tenure denial is an attempt to keep a truth-teller silenced.
“All previous UNC Knight Chairs have received tenure in conjunction with their appointments, and Ms. Hannah-Jones’s credentials not only match but exceed those of prior UNC Knight Chairs,” the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “The Board of Trustees’ refusal to consider and approve her tenure recommendation is in lock step with the political, conservative and race-based backlash across the country that seeks to revise the truth of racism throughout our Nation’s history and to censor honest conversations about race in America.”
Jones’ tenure denial is also as a retaliation against her 1619 project, a reexamination of slavery that was opposed by conservatives.
“As a Black woman who has built a nearly two-decades long career in journalism, I believe Americans who research, study, and publish works that expose uncomfortable truths about the past and present manifestations of racism in our society should be able to follow these pursuits without risk to their civil and constitutional rights,” Jones, who is also a 2021 Urban One Honors recipient, added. “I continue to be proud of my work through The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, The 1619 Project and my years of investigative reporting on the ways segregation and inequality is maintained through official action and policy.”
Joel Curran, a spokesman for UNC-Chapel Hill, refused to comment on the matter according to The Hill.
