Founded in 2022 at Howard University, CJD trains and uplifts investigative journalists committed to democracy, equity and the Black Press tradition of truth-telling
CJD SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
Preserving democracy through superior investigative journalism.
GIVING TUESDAY 2025
THANK YOU, CJD COMMUNITY.
The Center for Journalism & Democracy is focused on strengthening historically informed investigative reporting at Howard University and across the diaspora of historically Black colleges and universities. Investigative reporting is the most critical reporting that you can do in a democracy. That’s the reporting that seeks out those things people in power don’t want us to know about, but it also is the most expensive. It takes the longest; it has the highest risk.
We believe that the most pro-democracy press in the United States has always been the Black press, because it had the most expansive view of what democracy could look like.
And of course, we know that HBCUs have always been, from their founding, the most democratic of institutions in the United States. They’ve always had a charge of really trying to help this country to fulfill its ideals.
Today — Giving Tuesday—we pause to say thank you to the brilliant, audacious CJD community for seeing our vision, responding to our call, standing by our side, and being our unwavering support. We are making an indelible mark in American and human history because of you.
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, Cathy Hughes School of Communications Founder, Center for Journalism & Democracy
The Du Bois Data Lab
A no-cost, immersive program with the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY providing cutting edge training in data-driven research and reporting on social and health justice.
The Data Institute
CJD and the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting’s two-week, hybrid, data-driven training (e.g., data scraping, AI integration, web development) for marginalized earlycareer journalists and educators.
The Democracy Summit
The Democracy Summit is a day-long convening of historians, democracy experts and journalists to collectively unpack present and specific threats to
American democracy, examine how American media is covering the moment and come away with a new vision for protecting our democracy.
Visiting Professorships
Pulitzer Prize winner Kimbriell Kelly and award-winning investigative j ournalist Sean K. Campbell teaching rigorous investigative journalism and data journalism curriculum to nine HBCUs in a hybrid format.
Student Newsroom Innovation Challenge
CJD awarded 10 HBCU student newsrooms $200,000 in grants to upgrade equipment, expand editorial staffing and foster health equity reporting.
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As our news and information rapidly change, the media must do more to diversify the ranks of newsroom decision makers who determine the stories that are told. We believe the establishment of the Center for Journalism & Democracy at Howard University plays a critical role in helping to advance this important public interest objective.
Darren Walker, 10th President of the Ford Foundation
CJD equips HBCU student newsrooms to help address the ‘50 million with limited
GET INVOLVED. STAY INFORMED. SUPPORT US.
Homepage: cfjd.howard.edu.
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Donate: Howard University · GiveCampus
cjd@howard.edu