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Although the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's candidacy has been resubmitted, Hannah-Jones and her legal counsel are considering a discrimination lawsuit.
Dwayne Wade.
Newt Gingrich,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and former President
Donald Trump. As the letter points out, one of the most troubling aspects of the backlash against Hannah-Jones’ work are Republican-led attempts to muzzle transparent historical teaching in schools.
“While the denial of tenure is egregious, it is not an isolated incident. The same anti-democratic thinking that blocked Hannah-Jones’ appointment at her alma mater has also fueled efforts in state and local legislatures to ban the teaching of histories of slavery and its legacies through the 1619 Project.”
A growing number of states including Arkansas, South Dakota, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas have proposed or already passed legislation that restricts the teaching of critical race theory in public schools.
An array of prominent athletes, artists, entertainers, journalists and academics penned an open letter Tuesday, saying UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees has “failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas” in its inaction on the tenure of acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.
As Policy Watch first reported last week, the board of trustees failed to act on a recommendation of tenure for the Peabody, Polk and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist as the school’s Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. Board members said political objections to Hannah-Jones’s work led to the impasse and the school instead offering Hannah-Jones a non-tenured position under a five year contract.