Celebrating VCIJ at WHRO’s successes in 2024
Our newsroom has a lot to be proud of this year.
ProPublica, the nation’s premier, nonprofit investigative newsroom, selected VCIJ for one of 16 Local Reporting Network grants it awarded nationally last year. That partnership allowed us to pursue a long-overlooked story about the role Virginia’s public colleges and universities played in displacing Black communities.
Our series, Uprooted, began with the story of Shoe Lane in Newport News. The neighborhood was once a thriving middle-class Black community, but white city leaders in the early 1960s feared its expansion. They chose the area as the site for the new Christopher Newport College.
As the college grew into Christopher Newport University, the city and university acquired more properties, sometimes using eminent domain to displace reluctant Black homeowners. Today, just a handful of homes remain.
The series followed up with stories about similar disruptions around the University of Virginia and Old Dominion University. We looked deeper at the changes at CNU in recent years, and how, in a city with a plurality of Black residents, the university became less diverse in staff and students.
The 16-month investigation was reported by Brandi Kellam, Louis Hansen and Gabriel Sandoval, and edited by Hansen and ProPublica’s Daniel Golden. The companion documentary Uprooted was produced by ProPublica’s Lisa Riordan Seville and edited by Christopher Tyree.
Lawmakers reacted.
In May, the Virginia General Assembly funded the new Commission to Study the History of the Uprooting of Black Communities by Public Institutions of Higher Education in the Commonwealth. The panel will probe the expansions of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, and consider redress for families and their descendants.
The city of Newport News and CNU also formed a task force to re-examine its history on Shoe Lane, including six decades of property acquisitions.
Peers celebrated our work.
VCIJ at WHRO won some of the most prestigious journalism awards in the country for Uprooted:
The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for distinguished education reporting in the U.S. This is the highest award given by the Education Writers Association.
Columbia School of Journalism’s Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for outstanding reporting on racial or religious hatred, intolerance, or discrimination in the U.S.
A Capital Emmy and first place in the documentary journalism category for Pictures of the Year for the 25-minute film. The documentary also was selected and screened at the Virginia Film Festival and Whistleblowers Film Festival.
The series also was a finalist in the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Awards, Online Journalism Awards and the National Headliner Awards.
VCIJ at WHRO’s photo series and essay on Black midwives was a finalist in the visual journalism category from the Institute for Nonprofit News awards.
It was quite a year.
As we head into 2025, our mission remains constant: publish journalism that enlightens and impacts all Virginians.
If you appreciate our work, please consider supporting VCIJ at WHRO. We’re grateful for the community behind our small but mighty newsroom.
Sincerely,
Lou Hansen
Senior Editor, Co-founder, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
Christopher Tyree
Senior Director, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO