Award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill is expected to speak at the University of Memphis this week.
The event will take place March 12 at 6 p.m. in the University Center for the eighth-annual Norm Brewer First Amendment Lecture. It will be open to students and the public for free. Because the crowd was larger than expected, the lecture has relocated to the UC Ballroom to accommodate the crowd. It will begin with a video tribute to Norm Brewer and after, Hill will conduct her final lecture of the night.
At the UofM, Hill will have a full day of lectures at different locations and different times. With the expanded time frames, the public will have a chance to hear Hill speak throughout the day.
Noah Valle, a freshman electrical engineering major, is taking advantage of the opportunity to listen to Hill’s lectures.
“I do plan on going to the event to hear Ms. Hill speak,” Valle said. “I do not know much about her but what I do know is that she lost her job at ESPN because she gave her opinion, which I believe is a shame.”
To start the day off, Hill will be speaking to multiple classes in the Meeman Journalism Building in Room 100 at 1 p.m. A reception in the UC will begin at 5 p.m. and the lecture will begin at 6 p.m.
In 1997, Hill started her career as a general assignment sports writer for the Raleigh News & Observer. Her career began to grow when she joined ESPN in 2006 as a national columnist. She made many appearances on television including “ESPN First Take,” “Outside the Lines” and “The Sports Reporters.”
Not only was her career expanding at a rapid rate, but she has also been recognized for her work as a hard working female sports journalist.
In 2007, Hill was awarded the first annual McKenzie Cup and was runner up for The Best American Sports Writing award.
Hill began co-hosting “SportsCenter” with Michael Smith in 2017. The show ended on a bad note when Hill shared her opinions online of President Donald Trump and NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem.
In 2017, Hill tweeted how she felt about Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones comment that “any player who disrespects the flag, will not play.”
“Jerry Jones also has created a problem for his players, specifically the black ones. If they don’t kneel, some will see them as sellouts,” Hill tweeted. Hill also posted a tweet in which she called President Trump a ‘white supremacist.’
ESPN deemed the tweets inappropriate , and Hill was suspended for two weeks. during the summer of 2018, she announced her decision to depart from ESPN.
The last episode aired Feb. 2, 2018, and she was hired by a website that focuses on sports and pop culture called The Undefeated where she covered race, sports and culture.
In recent years, along with many other awards Hill has accumulated over time, she gained another accomplishment when she was named the 2018 Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.
