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Amid
ongoing GOP assaults on the voting rights of Blacks and other people
of color, three African Americans stood up for Black dignity. Nikole
Hannah-Jones accepted an appointment with tenure as Knight Chair and
professor in Race and Journalism at Howard University while Ta-Nehisi
Coates became writer-in-residence
in the College of Arts and Sciences and Sterling Brown Chair in the
English department.
Becky
Pringle, President of the National Education (NEA), the nation’s
largest teacher union, led her organization at its annual
representative assembly to pass a resolution to expand instruction in
culturally responsive education, critical race theory, and the study
of ethnic minorities, and to hire more educators of color. In effect,
she checkmated the GOP in its xenophobic efforts to demonize citizens
of color.
These
three individuals rose like Phoenix from the ashes of hate and
discrimination and political chaos being created by Republicans to
champion racial equality with multiracial allies. While their
Democratic politicians and colleagues appear flummoxed as to how to
respond in this era of escalating acts of oppression against its
minority citizens, they have confronted it head-on.
Hannah-Jones
waged a months-long battle to secure tenure at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her graduate alma mater, after being
offered the Knight Chair in its Walter Hussman School of Journalism
without it. Despite her approval by university committees, she was
the only appointment to the position not to be offered it.
The
J-School’s largest benefactor, namesake, and owner of a
southern newspaper syndicate quietly and aggressively worked behind
the scenes to convince North Carolina’s Republicans who control
the legislature and make appointments to the University’s Board
to delay a vote on Hannah-Jones’ tenure for unspecified
reasons.
Hussman
opposed Hannah-Jones over her journalistic principles based on her
development of the New
York Times
1619 Project which focused on race as a linchpin in the development
of America. He felt she was too radical for the University and wanted
her embarrassed by not being offered tenure, hoping she would decline
the position.
When
this and other surreptitious information became public, Hannah-Jones
hired law firms to demand that the Board decide on her tenure status.
After much wrangling and the full-throated support of faculty,
students, and threats from prospective, high-dollar donors to
withhold their contributions to the university’s fundraising
efforts, the situation was becoming untenable.
To
resolve the issue, Lamar Richards, the African American President of
the UNC-Chapel Hill student body and a member of the Board of
Trustees, lobbied six other Board members (as required by Board
rules) to force the Board president to call a special meeting to
consider Hannah-Jones’ tenure application. In that meeting, her
tenure was approved on a 9-4 vote.
As
is usual in the aftermath of the reversal of instances of blatant
racial discrimination, the observers of these debacles, who did
little or nothing to change the outcomes, gather together to
congratulate each other for racial progress and open their arms to
the individuals they rescued from a social and/or political lynching.
They
anxiously and enthusiastically waited for Hannah-Jones’ embrace
and for her triumphant return to campus where they planned to
celebrate a series of festivities, receptions, and interviews and
congratulated her and themselves and calm the waters and the
prospective donors.
The
University of North Carolina and its broader community eagerly
anticipated Hannah-Jones’ arrival to teach classes in the fall
semester. She expressed her appreciation to her supporters and then
released an eloquent and detailed assessment of the trials and
tribulations she endured during her ordeal of a racist persecution.
In
rejecting the appointment, Hannah-Jones gave effusive praise to her
strongest on-campus supporters - students and faculty - and then gave
the Board of Trustees, the UNC administration, North Carolina
legislators, and Walter Hussman, her most virulent nemesis, the back
of her hand, stating that it was not her responsibility to heal the
racism that permeated the institution. She was especially direct
about the failure of University administration to address it.
Ta-Nehisi
Coates, an award-winning author and activist has joined Hannah-Jones
in her act of dignity. Coates dropped out of Howard in 1993 to pursue
a career in journalism and has documented the rationale for
reparations for the Black community. He also plans to complete the
remaining credits for his baccalaureate degree and will be a shining
example for the students in his classes.
Becky
Pringle, NEA President, has stood at the forefront of numerous
efforts to achieve educational equity for students from all social
and economic backgrounds across the nation. She placed herself and
her office in the crosshairs of GOP zealots who are perpetrating Big
Lies about the 2020 elections, voter suppression, and critical race
theory which is a catch-all term to disparage efforts by those who
want a truthful history of America and is designed to stoke further
divisions between majority and minority racial groups.
This
trio of African American advocates stands as shining contemporary
examples of the hard work of our ancestors and the need for a
rededication to our efforts in our own racial progress.
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