Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones will join the faculty at Howard University, alongside award-winning author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, the university announced Tuesday.

The announcement arrives after Hannah-Jones turned down an offer of tenure from her alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which had initially offered the “1619 Project” journalist a faculty position without the same level of job security. Hannah-Jones will join the historically Black university this summer as the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism and will establish the new Center for Journalism and Democracy.

“In the storied tradition of the Black press, the Center for Journalism and Democracy will help produce journalists capable of accurately and urgently covering the challenges of our democracy with a clarity, skepticism, rigor and historical dexterity that is too often missing from today’s journalism,” Hannah-Jones said in a statement.

The journalist will hold a tenured position within the Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

Coates — a National Book Award winner who attended but did not graduate from Howard — will join as the Sterling Brown Chair in the Department of English “following completion of several current obligations,” the university said Tuesday.

Both are recipients of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill came under national scrutiny after the school walked back its initial offer for Hannah-Jones to join the faculty with tenure as its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. The university revoked its offer under intense pressure from conservatives and a wealthy university donor, who questioned Hannah-Jones’ teaching credentials and the historical accuracy of the “1619 Project.”

“What was the leadership at UNC thinking? This lady is an activist reporter – not a teacher,” said an unsigned editorial published by the Carolina Partnership for Reform, a conservative advocacy organization.

Trustees at UNC-Chapel Hill voted last week to change course and offer tenure to the journalist, but Hannah-Jones did not accept, saying in a statement that she would “need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward.”

Some historians criticized the essay that Hannah-Jones wrote for the 1619 Project — which earned her the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary — while others have supported it. The New York Times Magazine defended the series and rejected calls for factual corrections, calling Hannah-Jones’ essay “grounded in the historical record.”

Details are still emerging about how Howard University’s new journalism department will fit into the school’s existing academic programs. Howard does not currently offer a degree in journalism, but students can earn a Bachelor’s from the department of Media Journalism, Film and Communications. The school also operates a student-run newspaper, The Hilltop. The new Center for Journalism and Democracy plans to “work across multiple historically Black colleges and universities… that offer journalism degrees and concentrations,” according to a press release.

Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick declined an interview with WAMU/DCist, citing a schedule conflict. Neither Coates nor Hannah-Jones could be immediately reached for comment.

The new hires are funded by nearly $20 million from the Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and an anonymous donor meant to “support Howard’s continued education of and investment in Black journalists,” says a statement from the university.