Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has rejected a tenure offer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will instead join the faculty of Howard University as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism. Hannah-Jones, who is best known for her work on The New York Times’s 1619 Project, was originally denied tenure by UNC. On Tuesday, she spoke to CBS News’s Gayle King.
Nikole Hannah-Jones: “What has been reported is that there was a great deal of political interference by conservatives who don’t like the work that I’ve done, particularly The 1619 Project, and also by the powerful donor who gave the largest donation in the 70-year history of the journalism school. So, it’s pretty clear that my tenure was not taken up because of political opposition, because of discriminatory views against my viewpoint and, I believe, my race and my gender.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones will be joined at Howard, a prominent historically Black university, by acclaimed author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. We’ll have more on this story later in the show.