The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund has launched an investigative fellowship for journalists of color. The one-year Ida B. Wells Fellowship will go to four journalists and offer $10,000 each, travel and reporting costs and the chance to work with an Investigative Fund editor.
The fellowship is named after Ida B. Wells, a Jim Crow era investigative journalist. The fellowship seeks to bring more reporters of color into investigative journalism and newsrooms, which continue to be largely white and male. (You can explore what those numbers look like here.)
The Ida B. Wells Fellowship addresses these imbalances by identifying promising reporters of color, and other reporters from diverse backgrounds, who could benefit from editorial support and mentorship and who have the potential to help diversify the field.
Applications are due by April 18.
In 2014, BuzzFeed created a fellowship with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for investigative journalists of color. The first recipient, Melissa Segura, is now part of BuzzFeed’s investigative team. Poynter has written about that team and about Fusion, which has built a diverse and young investigative team.
