We, the undersigned, believe this country stands at a crucial moment that will define the democratic expression and exchange of ideas for our own and future generations. State institutions across the country are attempting to ban frank and rigorous conversation about our history in the classroom. Few single works have been threatened with more restrictions than the 1619 Project, a landmark exploration of America’s deep roots in enslavement. And now, the 1619 Project’s founder, Nikole Hannah-Jones, has had her appointment as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with tenure blocked by its Board of Trustees.
Hannah-Jones’ accolades are numerous: three National Magazine awards, one Peabody award, two Polk awards, a Pulitzer and a MacArthur Fellowship. Hannah-Jones has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians. Because of her extraordinary achievements, the Hussman School recruited Hannah-Jones, one of the school’s most notable alumni, intending to appoint her a professor with tenure. Hannah-Jones underwent the university’s rigorous tenure review process, which included enthusiastic support from the Hussman School faculty, her journalistic peers among them. The failure of courage on the part of the Board of Trustees to follow the recommendation of Hannah-Jones’ peers is almost certainly tied to Hannah-Jones’ creation of the 1619 Project.
While the denial of tenure is egregious, it is not an isolated incident. The same anti-democratic thinking that blocked Hannah-Jones’ appointment at her alma mater has also fueled efforts in state and local legislatures to ban the teaching of histories of slavery and its legacies through the 1619 Project. We call on all people of conscience to decry this growing wave of repression and to encourage a recommitment to the free exchange of ideas in our schools, workplaces, legislatures, and communities.
We are called to action by the example Hannah-Jones herself has set during her nearly twenty-year career as a journalist committed to shedding light on inequality and injustice through an examination of one of democracy’s fundamental building blocks, education. Writing first for outlets in Durham, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon, Hannah-Jones joined the New York Times Magazine in 2015 as a staff reporter. Throughout her life, she has unflinchingly unearthed the blueprints of racism, its latticework of law, policy and custom, and how it undergirds our everyday lives. Her work is a call to conscience and a call to action for all Americans who remain committed to a democracy premised in unrestricted opportunity and unbridled attainment in public education for all.
Thwarted in her school’s efforts to appoint Hannah-Jones as a fully tenured member of her faculty, Hussman School Dean Susan King announced in May 2021 that the appointment would be instead for a renewable five-year term. She explained: “Now one of the most respected investigative journalists in America will be working with our students on projects that will move their careers forward and ignite critically important conversations.” Still, as news of the Board’s deliberate inaction surfaced this past week, observers decried it. Dr. Jelani Cobb, historian and professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, urged during a television interview that we stand at a “real crossroads between academic freedom and freedom of the press.” There has to be “vocal and vociferous opposition from various quarters.” We agree.
The threat to learning and the exchange of ideas persists, especially in places where it is proposed that the 1619 Project be taught in public schools. At risk right now are opportunities for thousands of students across the nation to think more deeply about the year 1619 and the defining role of slavery in U.S. history. Right wing critics, pundits, and politicians have launched a coordinated campaign to suppress this essential historical inquiry. Proposed bills such as South Dakota’s vague “act to prohibit the use of curricular materials that promote racial divisiveness” quickly appeared, but Arkansas’ HB1231 is more literally named, “To Prohibit the Use of Public School Funds to Teach the 1619 Project.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell singled out the 1619 Project in a scathing letter condemning the Biden administration’s proposal to teach about racism and slavery’s legacy in the nation’s public schools. But the threat of state suppression does not end with the 1619 Project. Todd Rokita, Indiana Attorney General, wrote to the Biden administration to argue that they shouldn’t be “imposing the deeply flawed and radical teachings of critical race theory into the classroom.” At least 19 other states’ attorneys general have signed it. Currently, eight states have pending bills that will limit teachers (and some state contractors) from teaching anti-racism or anti-sexism, most by banning classroom material and censoring discussion. Our right and our children’s right to learn is under siege.
We decry this rising tide of suppression and the threat to academic freedom that it embodies. Some of us will call upon our university administrators, public school superintendents, principals, teachers, and faculty unions and senates to issue statements of support for the freedom of ideas in the classroom. Others of us will urge philanthropic foundations to look twice at state institutions that betray that freedom. The artists, performers, and speakers below may decline invitations from institutions that suppress free thought about racism and its historical roots. We will take our views with us to the ballot box and hold local, state and national politicians accountable to the free exchange of ideas and academic freedom. We, our children, young scholars, and our country deserve no less.
We will cheer Nikole Hannah-Jones on when she steps into her classroom at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill this fall. But we will not turn away from the regrettable circumstances under which she will do so. The University’s Board of Trustees has failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. And too many lawmakers have wrongly deemed it their role to reach into classrooms and tell educators what to teach and how to teach it.
Here, in 2021, we urge you and one another to resist.
Signed,
Affiliations for identification purposes only
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Writer
Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Peter V. & C. Vann Woodward Professor of History Emerita, Yale University
Martha S. Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History and the SNF Agora Institute, The Johns Hopkins University
A’Lelia Bundles, Author and Founder, Madam Walker Family Archive
Ada Ferrer, Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American & Caribbean Studies, New York University
Ademola Okulaja, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Adriane Lentz-Smith, Associate Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Duke University
Alan Taylor, University of Virginia
Alia Hanna Habib, Literary Agent, The Gernert Company
Allison Pugh, Professor of Sociology and Chair, Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality, University of Virginia
Allyson Hobbs, Associate Professor of American History, Director of African & African American Studies, Stanford University
Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, Ph.D., Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
Andre Iguodala, NBA Player
Andrea Chung, Artist
Andrew Horowitz, Assistant Professor of History, Tulane University
Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Humanities Division, UC Santa Cruz
Angela Rye, CEO, IMPACT Strategies, Host On 1 with Angela Rye
Anthea Butler, Interim Chair of Religious Studies, Associate Chair of Religion and African American Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Anthony Tolliver, NBA Player
Ariela J. Gross, John B. & Alice R. Sharp Professor of Law & History, University of Southern California
Ashley Dai, Former UNC athlete, tennis
Ashley Lim, Former UNC athlete, rowing
Ava DuVernay, Filmmaker
Barbara Ransby, John D. MacArthur Endowed Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Distinguished Professor of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Barry Jenkins, Filmmaker
Ben Alpers, Associate Professor, Honors College, University of Oklahoma
Benjamin Talton, Associate Professor of History, Temple University
Benjamin Lawrance, Professor of History, University of Arizona
Black Thought, Artist
Brandon Terry, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and of Social Studies, Harvard University
Brenda Elsey, Professor of History, Hofstra University
Brenda E. Stevenson, Nikoll Family Endowed Chair of History, UCLA; Inaugural Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair of Women’s History, Oxford University
Brianna Pinto, Former UNC athlete, soccer
Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Activist, Educator, Host & Executive Producer, UNDISTRACTED
Brittany West, Former UNC athlete, softball
Brittney Cooper, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies, Rutgers University
Bruce Dorsey, Swarthmore College
Bryn Boylan, Former UNC athlete, field hockey
Caitlin Rosenthal, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Calida Rawles, Artist
Calvin Schermerhorn, Arizona State University
Candace Cooper, Former UNC athlete, track & field
Carina Ray, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies, Brandeis University
Carl Suddler, Emory University
Carmelo Anthony, NBA Player, Social Change Fund United
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Core Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies, University of New Hampshire
Charles W. McKinney, Jr., Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies, Professor of History, Rhodes College
Cherisse Jones-Branch, PhD, James and Wanda Lee Vaughn Endowed Professor of History, Arkansas State University
Chris Jackson, One World
Chris Paul, NBA Player, Social Change Fund United
Christina Greer, Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
Christina Wolbrecht, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
Christopher McKnight Nichols, Associate Professor of History and Director, Center for the Humanities, Oregon State University
CJ McCollum, NBA Player
Claire Bond Potter, The New School for Social Research
Claudia Rankine, Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry, Yale University
Clint Smith, Writer
Cole Anthony, NBA Player
Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary
Courtnie Williamson, Former UNC athlete, field hockey
Crystal N. Feimster, Associate Professor, Department of African American Studies, Yale University
Crystal R. Sanders, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University
Cynthia Lyerly, Associate Professor, Boston College
Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Legal Correspondent, Slate, Host Amicus podcast
Daina Ramey Berry, University of Texas
Danny Green, NBA Player
Daphne Brooks, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, American Studies, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Music, Yale University
Darryl Pinckney, Writer
Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Trinity College
David Blight, Sterling Professor of History and Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University
David Silkenat, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
Deborah E. Roberts, Artist
Deborah E. McDowell, Director, Carter Woodson Institute, Alice Griffin Professor of English, University of Virginia
Derek Fordjour, Artist
Devin Bellamy, Former UNC athlete, swim/dive
Doc Rivers, NBA Coach
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Associate Professor of Literature, American University
Donna Brazile, Adjunct Lecturer, Georgetown University. Former Chairwoman, Democratic National Committee.
Douglas Foster, Associate Professor, Northwestern University
Dr. Cynthia Greenlee, UNC ‘96, Hussman 2000
Dwyane Wade, Retired NBA Player, Social Change Fund United
Ed Geth, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, Princeton University
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University
Edward B. Rugemer, Asscciate Professor of History and African American Studies, Yale University
Elizabeth Herbin-Triant, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Elizabeth Hinton, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies and Professor of Law, Yale University
Ellen D. Wu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History, Indiana University Bloomington
Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Charles and Mary Beard Distinguished Professor of History, Rutgers University
Eve L. Ewing, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Evelynn M. Hammonds, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science. Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Evette Dionne, Editor-in-chief, Bitch Media
Ezra Baeli-Wang, Former UNC athlete, fencing
Françoise Hamlin, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, Brown University
Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History, University of Edinburgh
Frederick Wherry, Townsend Martin, Class of 1917 Professor of Sociology, Princeton University and Director, Dignity + Debt
Garrett Temple, NBA Player
George Lynch, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Grace Elizabeth Hale, Commonwealth Chair of American Studies and History, University of Virginia
Greg Carr, Professor and Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies and Adjunct Professor, School of Law, Howard University
Harrison Barnes, NBA Player
Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University
Hazel V. Carby, Charles C. and Dorothea S. Dilley Professor Emeritus of African American Studies, Professor Emeritus of African American Studies, Yale University
Heather Andrea Williams, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought, Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize Recipient, Professor of History, University of Michigan
Henry Farrell, SNF Agora Professor of International Affairs, The Johns Hopkins University
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Professor, University of Oklahoma
Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University
Jacqueline Goldsby, Professor of English and African American Studies, Chair Department of African American Studies, Yale University
Jacqueline Jones, Ellen C. Temple Chair in Women’s History and Mastin Gentry White Professor of Southern History, University of Texas at Austin
Jacqueline Woodson, Writer
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Julia Cherry Spruill Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
James Smethurst, Professor of Afro-American History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Janelle Bailey, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
Jawad Williams, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Jean Allman, Professor of African and African American Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Jelani Cobb, PhD, Columbia School of Journalism
Jenee Desmond-Harris, Writer and Editor
Jeneé Osterheldt, Columnist, Boston Globe. Harvard Neiman Fellow, 2017
Jenna Wortham, Writer
Jennifer Trent Parker, Editor
Jerry Gershenhorn, Julius Chambers Professor of History, North Carolina Central University
Jesmyn Ward, Writer
Jesse Weaver Shipley, Professor of African and African American Studies, Dartmouth University
Jim Downs, Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Studies and History, Gettysburg College
John H. Bracey , W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Jonathan Cooper, Former UNC athlete, football
Jonathan Daniel Wells, Professor of Residential College, DAAS, and History, University of Michigan
Jonathan Earle, PhD, Dean, Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College, Louisiana State University
Joseph Winters, Duke University
Joshua D. Rothman, Professor of History, University of Alabama
Josie Duffy-Rice, Writer
Joy Reid, “The Reid Out,” MSNBC Political Analyst and Hearst Visiting Professor, Howard University, Spring 2021
Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University
Judy Wu, Director of the Humanities Center, Professor of Asian American Studies, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of California, Irvine
Jules Micchia, Former UNC athlete, rowing
Kamilah Forbes, Television and Theater Director and Producer
Karen Graubart, Association Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
Karen L. Cox, Professor of History, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Karl Jacoby, Allan Nevins Professor of History, Columbia University
Karla Holloway, Ph.D., James B. Duke Professor Emerita, Duke University
Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies and Founding Director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice, Loyola University Maryland
Katherine Mellen Charron, Associate Professor of History, North Caroina State University
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University
Keisha Blain, Associate Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh
Kellie Carter Jackson, Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities, Department of Africana Studies, Wellesley College
Kenny Williams, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Kevin Gaines, Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia
Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton University
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard Kennedy School
Khara Vassell, Former UNC athlete, soccer
Kidada E. Williams, Associate Professor of History, Wayne State University
Kim Gallon, Associate Professor of History, Purdue University
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law and Promise Institute Chair in Human Rights, UCLA Law, and Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Kimberly Atkins, Columnist, Boston Globe
Kobena Mercer, Professor of African American Studies and History of Art, Yale University
Konstantin Dierks, Department of History, Indiana University
Kristin Hall, Former UNC athlete, track & field
Kyle Guy, NBA Player
Leah Wright Rigueur, Harry Truman Associate Professor of American History, Brandeis University
Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor of African American Studies, University of California at Berkeley
Lena Waithe, Writer
Leslie M. Alexander, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Arizona State University
Leslie M. Harris, Professor of History and African American Studies, Northwestern University
Leslie Odom Jr., Actor, Producer
Liette Gidlow, Harvard Radcliffe Institute ‘20, Professor of History, Wayne State University
Lila Corwin Berman, Director of the Feinstein Center for Jewish Studies and Professor of History, Temple University
Linda Villarosa, Assistant Professor, The City College of New York
Maboula Soumahoro, University of Tours
Mady Clahane, Former UNC athlete, track & field
Maggie Auslander, Former UNC athlete, lacrosse
Malcolm Brogdon, NBA Player
Malinda Maynor Lowery, Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair in American History, University of Connecticut
Marcus Krah, Former UNC athlete, track & field
Marcus Paige, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Marilyn Richardson, Writer
Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D., Duke University
Marlene Daut, Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of Virginia
Martha Biondi, Lorraine H. Morton Professor of African American Studies and Professor of History, Northwestern University
Martha Hodes, New York University
Marvin Williams, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Northwestern University
Matthew Desmond, Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Matthew Frye Jacobson, Sterling Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University
Matthew Guterl, Professor, Africana Studies/American Studies/Ethnic Studies, Brown University
Matthew J. Countryman, Chair, Department of Afroamerican Studies, Associate Professor of Afroamerican Studies and History, University of Michigan
Melissa Harris-Perry, Maya Angelou Presidential Chair, Wake Forest University and President, Anna Julia Cooper Center
Michael A. Gomez, Silver Professor, Departments of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
Michele Norris, Journalist
Michelle Alexander, Visiting Professor of Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary
Michelle Duster, Columbia College Chicago
Michelle Moyd, Associate Professor of History, Indiana University - Bloomington
Mignon Moore, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
Minkah Makalani, Associate Professor, African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Molefi Kete Asante, Professor and Chair, Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University
N. D. B. Connolly, Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History, The Johns Hopkins University
Nancy Kwak, History, UC San Diego
Natalia Molina, Distinguished Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity, University of Southern California
Natalie Hopkinson, Writer and Scholar
Natalie Moore, Journalist
Natasha Cloud, WNBA Player, Social Change Fund United
Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of History, Emerita, Princeton University
Nicholas Guyatt, University of Cambridge
Nicole Hemmer, Columbia University
Nikhil Pal Singh, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History, New York University
Noliwe Rooks, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor, Africana Studies, Cornell University
Nwando Achebe, Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, Michigan State University
Olivette Otele, Professor of History of Slavery and Memory of Enslavement, University of Bristol
P. Gabrielle Foreman, Penn State University
Penny Von Eschen, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American Studies and Professor of History, The University of Virginia
Quincy Mills, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland at College Park
Rachel N Klein, Professor, Department of History, University of California, San Diego
Randal Maurice Jelks, Professor of African and African Studies, University of Kansas
Rebecca Anne Goetz, Associate Professor of History, New York University
Rebecca Carroll, Writer
Rebecca Traister, New York Magazine
Richard Jefferson, Retired NBA Player
Robert Korstad, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and History, Duke University
Robert Trent Vinson, Professor, Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies
Ruha Benjamin, Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University
Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Professor in American History, University of California, Los Angeles
Rochelle Riley, Journalist, University of North Carolina School of Journalism Alumna
Rokhaya Diallo, Journalist, author, and filmmaker
Roxane Gay, Writer
Russell Rickford, Associate Professor of History, Cornell University
Ryan Coogler, Filmmaker
Salah Hassan, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences, Africana Studies and Art History, Cornell University
Sarah J. Jackson, Presidential Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, and Co-Director, Media, Inequality and Change Center, University of Pennsylvania
Sarah Knott, Sally M. Reahard Professor of History, Indiana University
Seth Curry, NBA Player
Seth Rockman, Associate Professor of History, Brown University
Shammond Williams, Former UNC athlete, basketball
Shawn Leigh Alexander, Professor of African and African American Studies, University of Kansas
Stephanie Jones-Rogers, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley
Stephanie McCurry, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of History in Honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Columbia University
Stephen Berry, Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era, Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Historical Association, University of Georgia
Stephen Hahn, Professor of History, New York University, President of the Southern Historical Association
Stephen Kantrowitz, Plaenert-Bascom Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
Steven W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Daniel H. Renberg Chair of Social Justice in Reporting, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
Sunny Hostin, Lawyer, Author and Journalist
Suzanne Nossel, PEN America
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University
Talitha LeFlouria, Ph.D., Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor, University of Virginia
Tanisha Ford, Professor of History, The CUNY Graduate Center
Tanya McKinnon, McKinnon Literary
Tayari Jones, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English, Emory University
Tera Hunter, Edwards Professor of American History and African American Studies, Princeton University
Thandiwe Newton, Actor and Activist
Thomas J. Sugrue, Silver Professor of History and Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Tiffany Cross, Journalist
Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Harvard University
Tiya Miles, Professor of History, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, Harvard University
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School and Professor of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
Toshi Reagon, Musician, Producer, Activist
Tracey L. Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor, Yale Law School
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Associate Professor and Senior Research Faculty at UNC Chapel Hill and MacArthur Fellow
Tricia Rose, Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies and Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University
Trymaine Lee, Journalist
Tsitsi Jaji, Duke University
Victoria Saker Woeste, Historian. Affiliated Research Professor, American Bar Foundation
Virginia Scharff, Distinguished Professor of History Emerita, Department of History, University of New Mexico
W. Caleb McDaniel, Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities, Professor and Chair of History, Rice University
Wahneema Lubiano, Associate Professor, Department of African & African American Studies, Duke University
Walter C. Rucker, Professor, Department of African American Studies, Department of History, Emory University
Walter Johnson, History Department, Harvard University
Wesley Morris, Writer
William Sturkey, Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Xaviera Simmons, Artist