The 1619 Project creator’s decision follows a battle over tenure exposing faults among politics, donors, board governance and academic freedom.
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones is declining to join the ranks of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to accept a tenured job at Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington, D.C.
The announcement deals a major blow to UNC-Chapel Hill, which initially snubbed her application for tenure before granting her the status Wednesday after weeks of student and faculty outcry and media scrutiny.
In a statement, Hannah-Jones called out the university’s board of trustees for succumbing to political pressure to initially ignore her tenure bid. “I have never asked for special treatment,” she wrote. “I did not seek it here. All I asked was to be judged by my credentials and treated fairly and equally.”
Inside the tenure decision
Hannah-Jones is best known for spearheading the 1619 Project, a massive journalistic effort for The New York Times Magazine that examines how slavery and Black Americans shaped the present-day nation. Her introductory essay for the project won her the Pulitzer Prize.