UNC rally shows support for Hannah-Jones, decries campus atmosphere for Black students

Saying “this fight is not new,” more than 200 UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, alumni and others gathered Friday to protest the university’s failure to grant tenure to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, as well as what they say is a larger lack of support for Black faculty and students.

Taliajah Vann, president of the campus Black Student Movement, said racial issues on campus are bigger than the tenure of Hannah-Jones. Vann cited too few Black faculty and a lack of support for Black students on campus.

“We are here today demanding justice for Nikole Hannah-Jones,” said Jayna Ellis, another member of the BSM. She listed Hannah-Jones’s qualifications, which include over two decades in the journalism industry, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and a Peabody Award. “We are here in solidarity with a Black woman who is more than qualified to receive tenure from her alma mater.”

The BSM, which organized Friday’s “solidarity demonstration,” outlined a list of 13 demands for UNC-CH Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, including the removal of police from the residence hall move-in process and increased funding for student mental healthcare. They also called for more transparency in the tenure process, criticizing the lack of broad diversity on the current Board of Trustees.

Throughout the protest, students expressed frustration over what they said is a lack of willingness on the part of the university to make substantial change, both over the tenure decision and in terms of the broader racial climate on campus.

Julia Clark, vice president of the BSM, said her father also went to UNC-CH and was involved with campus activism.

“I don’t think there’s been any progress. If anything, I think this university is sliding further away from progress,” she said. “Black faculty and student numbers are dropping.”

Clark said she’s had two Black professors in her two years at UNC, even though she studies African, African American & Diaspora Studies. She says she’s “terrified” as Black faculty say they’re considering leaving UNC because of the current climate.

‘How dare you?’

Lamar Richards, UNC-CH student body president, said at Friday’s gathering that he has been telling prospective Black and minority students to reconsider coming to UNC.

“The chancellor and board said to me, ‘How dare you?’” Richards said. “I looked at them and said, ‘How dare you? How dare you invite more students here when you can’t even support the students you have?’”

Richards is a member of the UNC-CH campus Board of Trustees, which would vote on tenure. But the question of tenure for Hannah-Jone did not make it to the trustee board when she was named earlier this year as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the Hussman School of Journalism.

On Twitter on Friday afternoon, Hannah-Jones referenced the show of support from Chapel Hill and said, “I see you all. I am grateful.”

Hannah-Jones was given a 5-year contract with the opportunity for tenure later. But previous Knight Chairs at UNC have received tenure when they were hired.

The legal team for Hannah-Jones sent a letter earlier this week to the university stating that she will not join the faculty as planned on July 1 unless she is granted tenure.

Controversy over 1619 Project

For weeks, professional journalists, scholars and UNC-CH faculty, alumni and students have demanded the board grant Hannah-Jones tenure and defended her work. Critics across the nation have argued that race, politics and Hannah-Jones’s work on The 1619 Project are behind the board’s decisions. The project, which was published in The New York Times, used the lens of slavery to reframe the history of the United States.

In its Twitter thread announcing Friday’s protest, the Black Student Movement said this is “another example of UNC not supporting their Black students and staff” and “showing their commitment to white supremacy.”

Hannah-Jones’s attorneys threatened a federal lawsuit in late May saying UNC-CH “unlawfully discriminated against Hannah-Jones based on the content of her journalism and scholarship and because of her race.”

Richards has formally requested a special trustees board meeting to discuss and vote on Hannah-Jones’s tenure application. So far, the board has not called a special meeting, despite public pressure and a legal threat. Its next meeting is scheduled for July 14 and 15 in Chapel Hill.

“If Chancellor Guskiewicz cares about Black UNC like he says he does, you will be hearing from us soon about our demands,” Vann said, including the request for a special board meeting. “Whether or not he takes up this challenge, we will be here fighting always, for the entirety of this summer, for the entirety of the coming year, and for the time after that.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 2:08 PM with the headline "UNC rally shows support for Hannah-Jones, decries campus atmosphere for Black students."