The Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University hosted its annual Truth Over Power Speaker Series featuring a discussion between two leading voices on American history and politics. Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and New York Times reporter will be joined by Ta-Nehisi Coates, award-winning writer and journalist for a conversation moderated by Kimberly R. Moffitt, dean of Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications.
Hannah-Jones and Coates, whose works have been the target of widespread bans across the nation, will contextualize this unprecedented moment ahead of an election that will determine whether American democracy will hold.
Hannah-Jones has spent her career documenting racial inequality and injustice with rigor and moral clarity that redefines what journalism can do. Her reporting has helped shape a generation’s understanding of American history.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Between the World and Me,” a winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is also the author of the bestselling books “The Beautiful Struggle,” “We Were Eight Years in Power” and “The Water Dancer.” His numerous books, articles and essays have challenged America to reckon honestly with itself.
The Truth Over Power Speaker Series educates the general public on growing threats to democracy, free speech and racial justice in today’s political climate. The speaker series will build on the 2026 Democracy Summit, which brought together nearly 200 journalists, newsroom executives, legal scholars, and democracy advocates for a full day of programming designed to prepare and strategize around the elections and the aftermath of their results.
About the Center for Journalism and Democracy
The Center for Journalism and Democracy is a first-of-its-kind academic center committed to strengthening historically informed, pro-democracy journalism. Rooted in the history of journalism as activism, the Center for Journalism and Democracy seeks to honor and disseminate the traditions of the Black press by training journalists across the diaspora of HBCUs and focusing the profession toward journalism that defends democracy and claims justice as an ethos. The Center is led by founder Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism and a reporter at The New York Times Magazine.
About Howard University
Howard University, established in 1867, is a leading private research university based in Washington, D.C. Howard’s 14 schools and colleges offer 140 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs and lead the nation in producing African Americans with professional doctoral degrees. Howard is the top-ranked historically Black college or university according to Forbes, the only HBCU with an R1 research institution designation, and the only HBCU ranked among U.S. News and World Report’s Top 100 National Universities.
Renowned for its esteemed faculty, high achieving students, and commitment to excellence, leadership, truth and service, Howard produces distinguished alumni across all sectors, which have included the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice and the first woman U.S. vice president; a Nobel Prize laureate; Schwarzman, Marshall, Rhodes and Truman Scholars; prestigious fellows; and over 170 Fulbright recipients.