Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates: Two Iconic American Writers Join Howard University to Create the Center for Journalism and Democracy
Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates: Two Iconic American Writers Join Howard University to Create the Center for Journalism and Democracy
MacArthur Foundation Press Release
From MacArthur Fellows Press Release, MacArthur Foundation, 6 July 2021:
Howard University today announced that MacArthur Fellows Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates [MIT Visiting Scholar 2012-14] will join the Howard University faculty. Hannah-Jones will be a tenured member of the faculty of the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, filling the newly-created Knight Chair in Race and Journalism. Coates, a Howard alumnus, journalist, and author, will be a faculty member in the flagship College of Arts and Sciences.
Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will also found the Center for Journalism and Democracy, which will focus on training and supporting aspiring journalists in acquiring the investigative skills and historical and analytical expertise needed to cover the crisis our democracy is facing. The center hopes to work across multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that offer journalism degrees and concentrations.
“It is vital that we understand the role of journalism in steering our national conversation and social progress.”
The appointments are supported by $20 million donated by the MacArthur, Knight, and Ford foundations, as well as by an anonymous donor, to support Howard’s continued education of and investment in Black journalists.
“I heard a wise man once say, ‘A man who hates home will never be happy.’ And it is in the pursuit of wisdom and happiness that I return to join the esteemed faculty of Howard University. This is the faculty that molded me. This is the faculty that strengthened me,” Coates said. “Personally, I know of no higher personal honor than this.”