1619 Project Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones Rejects UNC Tenure Offer, Joins Howard University

Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, has declined a tenured position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will instead join Howard University as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a new tenured position. UNC, Hannah-Jones’ alma mater, initially attempted to offer her a traditionally tenured position as Knight Chair but lowered its offer to a five-year contract following opposition from conservative critics and Walter Hussman, a major donor and the journalism school's namesake. UNC later renewed its tenure offer on June 30. In an interview with CBS This Morning, Hannah-Jones said she had been treated “shabbily” by UNC, explaining, “The Knight chairs are designed for professional journalists when working in the field, to come into academia. Every other chair before me, who also happened to be white, received that position with tenure.” Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C., also announced the hiring of writer and Howard alumnus Ta-Nehisi Coates. 

Coverage in left-rated outlets was more likely to mention that Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on The 1619 Project. Coverage in right-rated outlets tended to describe conservatives’ criticisms as “concerns” and The 1619 Project as “controversial.”