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The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, an organization focused on cultivating investigative reporters and editors of color, is now going to be based at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, according to a news release from Morehouse.
The organization was co-founded by a number of big names in journalism, including Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, famous for her work on The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which focused on Black Americans’ contributions to U.S. history. The Ida B. Wells Society was formerly based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Hannah-Jones rejected a faculty position in 2021 after the Board of Trustees dragged its feet on offering her a tenured position, despite widespread support from academics. She took a position at Howard University instead.
The organization’s move to Morehouse was made official at an on-campus ceremony Thursday, which was attended by Hannah-Jones and Ron Nixon, vice president of news and head of investigations, enterprise, partnerships and grants at the Associated Press. The move comes not long after the college’s journalism and sports program became an official major in July of 2021 in which students can earn a bachelor’s degree from the department of Journalism in Sports, Culture and Social Justice.
The Ida B. Wells Society will help to teach Morehouse journalism students how to conduct interviews, find data, fact-check stories, pitch article ideas, use relevant technology and take advantage of open records laws. The organization will also host guest lectures and offer career development opportunities on campus.
Hannah-Jones said she was “very excited” Morehouse would be the organization’s new home.
“This partnership helps our young organization settle more deeply into our mission, which is to increase the number of investigative reporters of color,” Hannah-Jones said in the release. “Being located on the campus of a historically Black college located in Atlanta in proximity to other HBCUs and coming to Morehouse just as it gets its journalism major off the ground provides a tremendous opportunity for us to increase our impact on the field and society.”
