Td ameritrade where smart investors get smarter. Joe killian thinks about nicole. Hannah jones in the university of north carolina. He doesn't think about what happened this year. He thinks about a much younger nicole. Hannah jones before the awards before the sixteen nineteen project became a political lightning rod back when nicole hannah jones. I came to unc as a graduate student nicole. Hannah jones attended the university of north carolina at chapel hill. She she got her masters there. She's a tarheel. Yeah when she was a grad student in journalism school at unc chapel hill. She really thrived and she really started to become a journalist and she credits the university with watt and so she's always as she worked her way slowly up from the chapel hill. News to the durham bureau of the news. Observer to the oregonian propublica new york times along the way winning every major were journalism the peabody the polk award national magazine awards the pulitzer prize. She is maintained that relationship with you. See she's come back and giving commencement speeches to journalism school. She's come back in. Guest taught guest lectured classes. Her either be well. Society is based out of n. Say she cofounded that in its headquartered at safe so the dean of the journalism school susan king who is herself a pioneering woman in journalism began to think you know. Let's bring her back here in a. Let's set up a knight chair for people who don't know the. The knightfoundation endows professorships night chairs. They bring working professionals. In media reporters producers people who work in media to universities to share their professional expertise in the classroom and traditionally they get the protection of tenure which means they have a lifetime appointment right. It's not the case with every night. Sharon it's not the case at every school but at unc since the early eighties when they started this program there every single night. Chair has gotten tenure. And it's been presented to applicants that way and it's never been a problem and all of the applicants have been white. This is the the first black person the first black woman who is up for one of these and it's the only one that has come up against this sort of assistance and it sounds like when the dean offered this potential position to nicole hannah jones. She was initially you know she has a good job in new york and she had to think about it but then decided to really throw herself into the application process teaching classes and going through multiple votes from faculty and other people. What is that process. Typically like this tenure process is incredibly rigorous. Not only do you have to come and do all this things you were talking about where you come to teach you submit things people who you don't even know right things about whether you'd be a good candidate in our people who are faculty members at other universities. The faculty in the department has vote. The tenure committee has vote. she passed unanimously through. All these things so it goes up to the to the chancellor and the provost level of chancellor in the provo recommend her. There's nobody in this process. That has a problem with this so far. So where did the trouble start. Well there was sort of a whisper campaign you know. She's such a prominent persons such a prominent journalist and sixteen nineteen projects in the new york times especially has been the focus of such political ire on the political right. I mean leading political figures. Refer minting as sort of a second satanic panic has to do with critical race theory and the idea that white children are going to be taught to be embarrassed of their history and they wanna make us ashamed of america. Kelo school districts are now using the sixteen nineteen project from the new york times for example a curriculum. That project is the work of an out of the closet. Racial extremists called nicole. Hannah jones the president. Donald trump specifically denounced it teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse and briefly. I should just say that the sixteen nineteen project. The idea of it is that the country was really founded when slaves were first brought to this country and that that is uniquely american experience that has shaped the country ever since. Yeah that's not a bad way of putting it. I mean not in a literal sense. She sang a better way of thinking about the founding of the country is through looking at its relationship with slavery. And for that you've got to go to sixteen nineteen so that is in this. Racial moment that we're experiencing in this country been very controversial and she's one of a few prominent black journalists and scholars who have taken the brunt of the hit from conservatives on this so because that is the case in because she's such a known quantity it got around that they were pursuing her. Yeah what did this whisper campaign look like i began hearing about it because there were some people in conservative circles. Who were talking about it. They were kind of gearing up to prevent this or make it an issue. One of the things that happened was that there was a conversation between dean. Susan king of the j. school and walter hudson walter. Hudson is an arkansas media. Magnate whose family for a couple of asians has owned and operated a lot of newspapers television stations in arkansas. His name is also on the j. School at unc y- because in two thousand nineteen he donated twenty five million dollars. Pledged twenty five million dollars to the school. They named it after him. It's now the hussmann. Unc husband school of journalism in media and they also agreed to etch what he calls his core values of journalism into a wall at the school. And these are primarily about objectivity and you know restoring faith in journalism things that sound really good sort of on their face if you are abstract ideas once you begin to learn what husband thinks they are and how could be weaponized to attack journalism. He doesn't like Becomes kind of a different story so hussmann calls the dean. And says hey. I've heard that this is where it gets. Super strange husband doesn't call the team. The dean calls husband And says we're thinking about hiring nicole. Hannah jones he says well. I don't much like that idea. Here are my concerns. I'd like to see nineteen project. I'm concerned historians have said that they have some problems whether they think that they're eight historical things in it you know. She says well listen. It's got its critics. They've answered those criticisms. You know we're gonna make the decision here ourselves a good one. He says well. I disagree with you. She says while. I disagree with you. I guess we're gonna have to respectfully disagree. Do they do that not so much. What husband does is contact the chancellor kevin gus quits. He contacts the vice chancellor who's in charge of charitable giving at the university so he goes over her head at yeah and he also sends emails that he sent to them to the board of trustees who will ultimately be responsible.