Oldest black college newspaper celebrates 100th anniversary

The Hilltop newspaper, known as the student voice of Howard University, has just turned 100. It held a gala celebration in February at the National Press Club in Washington with the Hilltop alumnus Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste. It was a moment to reflect on the paper’s standing as chronicler of one of America’s most storied historically black colleges and universities and, in an election year, its role in helping a new generation navigate a racially divided nation, writes David Smith for The Guardian.

Howard University was established on a hilltop in Washington by an act of Congress in 1867, soon after the civil war, creating opportunities for generations of black intellectuals, lawyers, doctors and other professionals barred from attending predominantly white universities. Student Zora Neale Hurston, later a writer and anthropologist, co-founded the Hilltop in 1924.

A dip into the archives shows that the first edition, which sold for 5 cents, reported that “enthusiasm ran high” for a speech by the black separatist Marcus Garvey. Later issues find Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivering a lecture to 3,500 people and taking questions about black power and, in 1989, around 3,000 students staging a huge protest over multiple grievances with backing from Jesse Jackson.
Full report on The Guardian site