A $1 million grant from the Black Community Commitment made by basketball legend Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand will boost the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting’s efforts to increase diversity in the field of investigative journalism with outreach efforts aimed at aspiring young journalists of color.
The grant, announced in May, will enable the Society to expand its college internship partnerships, build a summer journalism program at a historically Black North Carolina college, and launch a yearlong high school journalism project at a majority Black and Latino public high school in that state.
The Ida B. Wells Society, housed at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and founded in 2016 to train and support reporters of color who want to pursue investigative and accountability reporting and to increase and improve reporting on racial inequality, is one of just three organizations in the country to be named as part of the latest efforts toward the pledge.
“To be one of just three recent recipients named in this round, alongside beacons of the Black community such as Morehouse College in Atlanta and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., is a tremendous honor,” said the Society’s Director Rhema Bland. “And we’re honored to follow the legal and voter rights groups who received Black Community Commitment grants in 2020. I think it speaks to the work we do and the impact we aspire to have on the journalism industry and our democracy as a whole.”
Four acclaimed journalists founded the Ida B. Wells Society in 2016 to build the presence, profile and power of journalists of color in the field of investigative reporting. Storied New York Times Magazine investigative reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, along with award-winning journalists Ron Nixon, who leads the global investigations team at The Associated Press, and Topher Sanders, who covers race, inequity and social justice for ProPublica, continue to steer the organization.
Read the complete Carolina Story.
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