Go where you are celebrated, not just tolerated!
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Howard alumnus Ta-Nehisi Coates are joining Howard University faculty; the university announced Tuesday morning. Hannah-Jones will come on as a tenured professor in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications this summer in the newly established position of Knight Chair in Race and Journalism. She turned down a recent tenure offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that came after several months of protests and controversy over application for tenure being denied.
“I will be taking a position as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Reporting at Howard University, founded in 1867 to serve the formerly enslaved and their descendants. There, I will be creating a new initiative aimed at training aspiring journalists to cover the crisis of our democracy and bolstering journalism programs at historically Black colleges and universities across the country,” Hannah-Jones said in a statement. “In the storied tradition of the Black press, the Center for Journalism and Democracy will help produce journalists capable of accurately and urgently covering the perilous challenges of our democracy with a clarity, skepticism, rigor, and historical dexterity that is too often missing from today’s journalism.”
JUST IN: Award-winning journalist @nhannahjones reveals on @CBSThisMorning she has declined the University of North Carolina’s offer for tenure and will be the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Reporting at @HowardU. pic.twitter.com/w9j0gVe0cd
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) July 6, 2021
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Coates, the award-winning author and journalist, will be a writer-in-residence in the College of Arts and Sciences and hold the Sterling Brown Chair in the Department of English. He said that he also plans to teach a creative writing course next year.
“That really is the community that made me,” Coates told The Washington Post. “I would not be who I am without the faculty at Howard.”
#ICYMI: #tanehisicoates #nikolehannahjones and #jelanicobb joined us on Tuesday for the #PowerofthePen event and of course, Coates, the author of #BetweenTheWorldandMe had profound words to share as the charge for all journalists, “to save humanity.” pic.twitter.com/1bQMBcph39
— Howard University (@HowardU) March 7, 2019
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The “Between The World And Me,” author also plans to finish his bachelor’s degree, which he started in 1993 but has yet to pick a major.
“I heard a wise man once say, ‘A man who hates home will never be happy.’ And it is in the pursuit of wisdom and happiness that I return to join the esteemed faculty of Howard University. This is the faculty that molded me. This is the faculty that strengthened me,” Coates said in a statement. “Personally, I know of no higher personal honor than this.”
President of Howard University, Wayne A. I. Frederick, said in a statement that he’s pleased to welcome “two of today’s most respected and influential journalists.”
“At such a critical time for race relations in our country, it is vital that we understand the role of journalism in steering our national conversation and social progress,” Frederick said. “Not only must our newsrooms reflect the communities where they are reporting, but we need to infuse the profession with diverse talent. We are thrilled that they will bring their insights and research to what is already a world-class, highly accomplished team of professors.
Their roles were made possible by nearly $20 million in donations from an anonymous donor and the Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, officials said.
Howard University is proud to announce Nikole Hannah-Jones & Ta-Nehisi Coates will join the HU faculty to help educate the next generation of black journalists. The appointments are supported by nearly $20 million donated by four donors.
Read more here: https://t.co/7JILEjOlNd pic.twitter.com/7i8oNTU15C
advertisement— Howard University (@HowardU) July 6, 2021
“I am so incredibly honored to be joining one of the most important and storied educational institutions in our country and to work alongside the illustrious faculty of the Cathy Hughes School of Communications and the brilliant students it draws in,” Hannah-Jones said. “One of my few regrets is that I did not attend Howard as an undergraduate, and so coming here to teach fulfills a dream I have long carried. I hope that the decision that Ta-Nehisi and I made to bring our talents to an HBCU will lead others to make a similar choice.”
Susan King, dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill journalism school, one of the people who pushed for Hannah-Jones’ tenure at UNC, said she was disappointed but happy for her well-deserved position.
“We wish her nothing but deep success and the hope that UNC can learn from this long tenure drama about how we must change as a community of scholars in order to grow as a campus that lives by its stated values of being a diverse and welcoming place for all,” King said in a statement.
I will continue to support your efforts. Still a #tarheel https://t.co/dnBvaa233H
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) July 6, 2021
The support for Hannah-Jones and Coates has already come from the internet, many are excited for what this means for Historically Black Colleges and University’s and Black journalists.
I can’t say enough about how much I admire @nhannahjones for rejecting UNC, AFTER getting tenure, and then choosing Howard. She wins.
advertisement— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) July 6, 2021
“I cannot imagine working att..a school named for a man who lobbied against me, used his wealth to influence the hires and ideology of the journalism school.. because he believed a project that centered Black Americans equaled the denigration of white Americans” @nhannahjones
advertisement— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) July 6, 2021
i KNOW Toni Morrison is up there grinning like a proud momma, check and mate!!!! Brava and Bravo @nhannahjones #TaNehisiCoates
✊ ✊ ✊ https://t.co/GZEEPeROLDadvertisement— JIM (@jamesmcelweejr) July 6, 2021
When the ancestors said “when one door closes, God will open a window of blessings for you!” This is what they meant!
advertisement— Whew! Chile! (@gardnersmith21) July 6, 2021
@HowardUniv has the Wakanda Avengers of educators with @AfricanaCarr @mariosesh @ValethiaWatkins, Bradford Grant and now #TanehisiCoates and @nhannahjones! (I know I’m missing some folk…which tells you how amazing this faculty is).
advertisement— Karen Hunter (@karenhunter) July 6, 2021
When Black folx flex. Tuhhh! #NikoleHannahJones #TaNehisiCoates I love US!
advertisement— if tuhhh was a person | Dee (@msdunn_says) July 6, 2021
Wow. @nhannahjones declines offer from @unc and heads to @HowardU, where her close friend #TanehisiCoates was educated.
advertisementWhat an amazing addition to Howard University. HBCUs continue to be critically important. And these voices are necessary to the field of bearing witness. https://t.co/z7xiWCd4cx
— @tiffanydcross (@TiffanyDCross) July 6, 2021
UNC Trustees: “Baby come back. We messed up.”#NikoleHannahJones : (hair toss, checks her nails) https://t.co/gTCu2EE4nV
— Melissa Castro (@cbj_castro) July 6, 2021
The perfect meme for today #NikoleHannahJones pic.twitter.com/ju9bJQU2Fp
— C.S. Watkins (@DrCSWatkins) July 6, 2021
Henceforth, academia needs to stop playing games with Black women. #NikoleHannahJones #Howard #UNC #tenure #SupportBlackWomen #CiteBlackWomen
— AfrofuturistWoman, South Carolinian Living in NYC (@quitafor) July 6, 2021
Ha! If STOP PLAYING with ME was a person. #issaflex #NikoleHannahJones https://t.co/GRSgOHkiQH
— Q U I N T E S S A (@quinn_willi) July 6, 2021
And that’s how you clear it. Don’t let ANYONE treat you like the yellow Starburst when you know you are the red one or maybe even pink ♀️✨. #NikoleHannahJones #HowardUniversity pic.twitter.com/Ah7WyAlFnM
— Dr. Wendy Osefo (@WendyOsefo) July 6, 2021
Whoaaaaa!!! Major news I was a Communications major in college. Super excited for the college students who get to experience @nhannahjones and Ta-Nehisi Coates as faculty. Wow!!
— SuperNova (@LadySnow1920) July 6, 2021
Congratulations to both of you. She should go where she will be celebrated not tolerated. Great move!!!
— Sho-Nuff (@FreeTheKids2020) July 6, 2021
This is the mindset Afrikan Americans must exhibit and live with daily as we resurrect BLACK WALL STREET!
❤
No greater place to get your knowledge than from an HBCU College!— Steven Spruill (@SpruillSteve) July 6, 2021
You are both Black excellence, we love watching you win! Congraulations!
Photo Credit: Colin Boyle for The Daily Northwestern/Evan Agostini for the AP