Philanthropies pledge $20 million to support Pulitzer-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones
CBSN
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones will use major philanthropic donors to build her future as a tenured professor at Howard University, just as other major donors sought to stymie the Pulitzer Prize-winning Black investigative reporter at the University of North Carolina.
Backed by $20 million in donations, Hannah-Jones announced Tuesday the establishment of the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard to increase diversity in journalism. She also said that political interference from Arkansas newspaper publisher Walter Hussman, who pledged $25 million to UNC's journalism school and whose name adorns its building, resulted in questions about her receiving tenure, which she was belatedly offered last week following an outcry from students and faculty members. "How could I believe I'd be able to exert academic freedom with the school's largest donor so willing to disparage me publicly and attempt to pull the strings behind the scenes?" Hannah-Jones wrote in a statement. "Why would I want to teach at a university whose top leadership chose to remain silent, to refuse transparency, to fail to publicly advocate that I be treated like every other Knight Chair before me?"More Related News