Isabel Wilkerson Instagram – On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame.
It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own.
What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine.
I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes.
I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor.
Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop.
It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years. | Posted on 29/Feb/2024 20:10:15
