Nikole Hannah-Jones Is Granted Tenure After Weekslong Dispute

“I had no desire to bring turmoil or a political firestorm to the university that I love, but I am obligated to fight back against a wave of antidemocratic suppression that seeks to prohibit the free exchange of ideas, silence Black voices and chill free speech,” she said in the statement, which was issued by one of the law firms representing her, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

A Legal Defense Fund spokeswoman said at the time that the university had unlawfully discriminated against Ms. Hannah-Jones “based on the content of her journalism and scholarship and because of her race.”

In a June 21 letter, Ms. Hannah-Jones’s legal team informed the university that she would not join the faculty without tenure, adding that she had not withdrawn her application for tenure.

The letter, published on NC Policy Watch, a North Carolina news site, said Ms. Hannah-Jones had prepared her tenure application with an expectation that it would be voted on by the board at its meeting last November. The matter was not addressed at that meeting, nor at a meeting in January, the letter said, and the board offered no explanation on why tenure had been withheld.

The letter added that Ms. Hannah-Jones, after signing her fixed-term contract, had learned of “political interference and influence from a powerful donor,” which she believed had contributed to the failure of the board to vote on the matter.

The “powerful donor” was apparently Walter E. Hussman Jr., the Arkansas newspaper publisher after whom the journalism school is named. In emails to university leaders, Mr. Hussman, who has pledged $25 million to the school, had expressed concerns about certain aspects of the 1619 Project and Ms. Hannah-Jones’s hiring.

But in an interview with The Times in June, Mr. Hussman said that, despite his misgivings, he did not want to influence the board’s decision. He added that the outcome of the matter would not affect his donations to the university.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com