In a letter to state lawmakers, attorneys for Nikole Hannah-Jones say that they are pursuing “all available legal recourse to fully vindicate Ms. Hannah-Jones’s rights” and ask for all records relating to her hire to be saved.

The letter, obtained by the News & Observer, is one of the first public actions the Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow has taken since the Board of Trustees’s failure to grant her tenure was reported last week.

Hannah-Jones’s legal team has asked that all documents and data about her hiring be retained by lawmakers, as well as any information about the hiring of previous Knight Chairs. She is represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as well as employment attorneys from a New York City firm, and Geraldine Sumter, a notable Charlotte civil rights attorney.

Hannah-Jones has mostly stayed off social media as the news broke, but earlier this week, a Twitter user noted that she had removed her Knight Chair position from her profile.

Hannah-Jones, the creator of The 1619 Project and an alumna of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, was hired as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at her alma mater. Almost instantly, conservatives began complaining about the hire, repeating talking points on “the dangers of critical race theory.”

This reached the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, who took no action on extending her tenure despite Hannah-Jones’s credentials, the stamp of approval from Hussman faculty, and the precedent that all previous Knight Chairs had received tenure with their appointment. When pressed, Board Chair Richard Stevens and Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz told reporters that Hussman School Dean Susan King presented Hannah-Jones a fixed-term contract without tenure, even though no vote was held.

UNC-Chapel Hill only had 351 tenured women of color out of the 4,085 full-time faculty at the university, according to 2020 data provided by the media relations team. For the same year, only 69 Black people overall were tenured at the university.

Since N.C. Policy Watch first broke the story, Hannah-Jones has received an outpouring of support from students, faculty, and the Knight Foundation. About 60 protesters showed up at the Carolina Inn last week to protest a Board of Trustees meeting, although the issue wasn’t addressed until the media briefing that afternoon. It is possible that the board will reconsider her tenure in the near future, but there is currently no clear timeline for that process.

Follow Digital Content Manager Sara Pequeño on Twitter or send an email to [email protected]. 

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