By Sholnn Z. Freeman
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism and founder of the Center for Journalism & Democracy at Howard University, will host a Democracy Summit for veteran and budding journalists. During this day-long event, participants will hear from foremost experts on threats facing our democracy, examine how American journalists are responding to this moment, and come away with a new mandate for protecting our democracy now.
The Democracy Summit will take place 1p.m. to 5p.m. at Howard University’s Blackburn Center, 2397 Sixth St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20059. The Democracy Summit will be the inaugural event for the Center for Journalism & Democracy, the first-of-its-kind academic center committed to strengthening historically-informed, pro-democracy journalism. Participants will confront journalism’s tension with taking a pro-democracy stance, even as it is democracy that guarantees our freedom to operate.
The summit will bring together historians, democracy experts, and leaders in journalism for a collective unpacking of the present and specific threats to American democracy, the history that shaped this moment, and the journalism profession’s central concepts of fact, objectivity, fairness and balance as they relate to investigating the institutions and individuals central to our system.
Speakers include Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Anthea Butler, Greg Carr, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Avery Davis-Roberts, Astead Herndon, Maria Hinojosa, Sherrilyn Ifill, Cassandra Jaramillo, Steven Levitsky, Wesley Lowery, Rachel Orey, Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, Kathy Roberts Forde, Jay Rosen, Jason Stanley, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Daniel Ziblatt, and more.
