After hearing complaints from conservative political powers in the state, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has withdrawn its offer of a tenured chair at the school to a highly distinguished journalist because of her contributions to the 1619 Project.

According to NC Policy Watch, Nikole Hannah-Jones was offered the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a tenured position in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.  An alumnae of Chapel Hill herself, where she got her master’s degree, Hannah-Jones’ credentials are suited for the position, having worked at Raleigh’s News & Observer, The Oregonian in Portland and Pro Publica in New York, as well as the New York Times Magazine.

Nominated for the position by a faculty review board, Hannah-Jones has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant,” and she contributed to the NY Times’ acclaimed 1619 Project feature, which investigated the influence slavery has had on the United States on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship coming to American shores. 

Conservative groups with ties to the UNC Board of Trustees, however, objected to her appointment, and Chapel Hill withdrew its offer of a lifetime tenured chair and instead substituted a position with a five-year renewable contract.

One of the groups raising hell over the offer to Hannah-Jones was the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, a conservative group dedicated to undermining academic independence, which was co-founded by Art Pope, a former Republican state budget director and a major GOP donor.  Pope now sits on the Board of Governors for the trustees of the UNC system.  The Martin Center said Hannah-Jones has “questionable credentials,” even with the MacArthur grant and Pulitzer.

“This lady is an activist reporter — not a teacher,” said an unsigned editorial from the Carolina Partnership for Reform, an organization “to advocate for a freedom-based agenda in North Carolina” focusing on “a policy vision based on principles of individual liberty, economic prosperity, and restraints on the size and scope of government.”

The impact the displayed influence of these conservative groups has had on this appointment is chilling to the faculty.  “If the [Board of Trustees] doesn’t take that recommendation, they are essentially disregarding almost a month’s worth of work time of faculty consideration to the issue,” said Mimi Chapman, UNC-Chapel Hill’s faculty chairperson. “So that feels very demoralizing.”