Nikole Hannah-Jones is now the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University. She is the first person to hold that position at Howard, and she took it after being offered the same position at UNC, her alma mater.
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However, despite being offered the position, a months-long controversy brewing behind closed doors at UNC resulted in the school offering her the job without tenure--which had reportedly always been included with the job in the past.
The controversy even included the namesake of UNC's journalism school, Walter Hussman Jr, expressing concern for Hannah-Jones and criticizing her journalism by calling it "ideology"
SEE ALSO: 3 key moments that led to Nikole Hannah-Jones declining UNC tenure offer
During an interview on Good Morning America, Hannah-Jones revealed what she had learned from the public fallout with UNC.
"What I learned is, one, you can do all of the things that we are told that we are to do to be successful, and then in the end, as a black woman, you can still be denied," Hannah-Jones said. "And that, we have to take those moments and use those moments to exercise our power and to say that we will be in control of our own destiny. And that's what I decided to do at Howard, and I'm just so excited to be there."
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Hannah-Jones' latest book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story and its accompanying children's book Born On The Water are available November 16.
"I really hope that people will come to it with an open mind. I think people will be really astounded by all of the things they will learn from the book and the way that we connect the book to the society we live in now," Hannah-Jones said.
WATCH: As UNC-CH seeks new dean, who is willing to take the position after Nikole-Hannah Jones controversy?
As UNC-CH seeks new dean, who is willing to take the position after Nikole-Hannah Jones controversy?