Students at the University of Missouri protest the university’s handling of racist incidents, November 9, 2015.(AP Photo / Jeff Roberson, File)
CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400
New York, NY—May 18, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of independent journalism, progressive politics, and culture, today announced the launch of Black on Campus (#BlackOnCampus), an extension of our long-standing commitment to the education, training, and support of student and emerging journalists. Produced in partnership with the Anna Julia Cooper Center of Wake Forest University, Black on Campus is a national program for 10 storytellers—chosen from a pool of more than 100 applicants—in two- or four-year colleges, universities, or graduate schools, working under the direction of Nation contributing editor Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry), founding director of the AJC Center and Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University, and Dr. Sherri Williams (@SherriWrites), assistant professor in race, media, and communication at American University.
Black on Campus allows participants to develop professional skills as they document the experiences of black college students and report on issues of national consequence to a student audience. For the next several weeks, The Nation will bring you reporting from the talented young writers of the Black on Campus cohort as they follow in the examples of Ida B. Wells and Anna Julia Cooper—righting wrongs by shining the light of truth upon them to reframe our understanding of the political, cultural, and personal implications of race, in pursuit of a better nation.
In her introduction to the series, Harris-Perry discusses “What It’s Like to Be Black on Campus Now.” “Suddenly our experiences no longer seem isolated,” she explains. “They’re linked in a larger movement against institutional racism.” The inaugural essay, by UVA junior Alexis Gravely (@_AlexisWasHere), begins where the academic year began—with racial violence: “At the University of Virginia, Black Students Are Still Recovering From August 11.”
Since January, student writers have met monthly with the Black on Campus journalism squad and traveled to Washington, DC, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On June 1, they will attend The Nation’s annual Student Journalism Conference at the New School in New York City.
For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.
About The Nation:
Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.
About the AJC Center:
The Anna Julia Cooper Center is an interdisciplinary center at Wake Forest University with a mission of advancing justice through intersectional scholarship.
The AJC Center supports, generates, and communicates innovative research at the intersections of gender, race, and place, sustaining relationships between partners on campus and throughout the nation in order to ask new questions, reframe critical issues, and pursue equitable outcomes.
We now confront a second Trump presidency.
There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.
Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.
Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.
The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
The AJC Center supports a postdoctoral fellowship and undergraduate research; convenes faculty, researchers, and community through seminars and roundtable discussions; and hosts local and national events and residencies. The AJC Center is the administrator of the Collaborative to Advance Equity Through Research.
The Center is named for scholar, educator, and author Anna Julia Cooper, whose pioneering scholarship and activism laid the foundation for black American feminism and insisted on the importance of Southern voices in American politics.
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Press RoomTwitterBig Nation announcements and select interview clips. For media inquiries, booking requests or further information, please contact: Caitlin Graf, VP, Communications, The Nation press [at] thenation.com / 212-209-5400