Located in our nation's capital, at a university chartered by the federal government to educate the formerly enslaved, the Center for Journalism & Democracy seeks to honor and disseminate the traditions of the Black press by training journalists to engage in historically-informed reporting that critiques government and power, is skeptical of nationalism, and works in service of a multiracial democracy.

The Center for Journalism & Democracy will reshape the national conversation around responsible power and democracy through critical, investigative journalism. The Center will support and develop investigative journalists that seek to bring vital conversation about accountability surrounding the challenges facing our nation. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, the Center will help foster the media credibility necessary to strengthen our democracy.

Journalism is the firewall of our democracy. When journalism falters in holding power to account and making transparent the way that power is wielded against the vulnerable, then democracy itself falters. With American democracy facing challenges we have not experienced in a century, our profession must create new norms that value truth over neutrality, that challenge power rather than mirror it and that realize a multiracial democracy must be served by a multiracial press.