The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees' decision to deny journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenured position continues the Southern tradition of political interference over public universities.
As with other cases at some of the South's most esteemed schools, the attempt to intimidate Hannah-Jones and the UNC Hussman School of Journalism involves journalism, protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
With great fanfare, UNC journalism school dean Susan King announced in April the appointment of Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur fellow Hannah-Jones to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.
Hannah-Jones won her Pulitzer for leading The New York Times' "1619 Project," which probed the pervasive influence of slavery and racism in American society.
Several noted historians criticized the "1619 Project” for suggesting that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery, rather than winning economic and political independence from Great Britain.
Conservatives blasted the project, claiming it falsely moved the republic's founding to 1619, the date American slavery began, from 1776.
Hannah-Jones wasn't a victim of conservative canceling; she received a five-year non-tenured professorship at the school, with tenure review at the end of her appointment.
The Board of Trustees claimed that she was denied the tenure given past holders of the post because she's had a non-academic career, although she holds a master's journalism degree from UNC and has held university fellowships.
She won the Pulitzer for her essay expressing the aims of the "1619 Project." Her editorial leadership of the project, to which several university professors contributed, also shows a high level of academic skill. Her MacArthur grant is supreme qualification for tenure.
A board member anonymously admitted to a reporter that conservative political pressure led to the move. The "1619 Project," along with "critical race theory" programs, are the new lightning rods for right-wing criticism.
Hannah-Jones won't be cowed by the move; she retains her position as a writer for The New York Times Sunday magazine and agreed to take the non-tenured post at UNC.
But the decision delivers a warning to the school's academic leaders that their actions are under scrutiny. That will make them less willing to hire professors who hold controversial views or undertake innovative programs.
The action is the latest in the South's dark history of political coercion of academic freedom.
Huey Long, known for his ostentatious support of LSU in the 1930s, strong-armed the firing of an LSU Reveille editor who criticized him. Outside of the ouster of the student newspaper editor and meddling in LSU football and the band's routines, the Kingfish pretty much kept his hands off the state university, which rose in academic prestige during his years.
Southern governors' resistance to integration and the civil rights movement led to firings of student newspaper editors Willie Morris at Texas and Bill Shipp at Georgia. Alabama's George Wallace, Mississippi's Ross Barnett and other Southern governors sought to prevent blacks from entering state universities during the 1960s.
One of the strangest incidents of political intimidation of school journalism also occurred at LSU in the early 1970, as the counterculture at last arrived at the conservative "Ole War Skule.”
As editor of the LSU yearbook "The Gumbo," my former Baton Rouge Morning Advocate colleague Joel Levy published photos of LSU students that revealed open sexuality and marijuana use. That led to an outburst of legislative outrage and a brief spate of national attention. Sadly, I recently learned about Levy's death, far too young. She was an unsung hero of free expression.
Southern conservatives feel pride at their public universities' sports success. But through the years, they've sought to curtail academic freedom.
The assault against free inquiry at the University of North Carolina tarnishes its legacy as a beacon of higher education in the South.