An Interview with Dorothy Butler Gilliam
By Kiratiana Freelon, Contributing Writer
During the summer of 2014, I scored a coveted journalism internship at The Washington Post. I was one of 20 young journalists who spent eight weeks working at one of America’s top daily newspapers and the only black woman. During that summer, I wrote articles and produced videos about the World Cup soccer tournament, the Black Lives Matters movement, viral social media posts, and Detroit’s water crisis.
I worked that entire summer without any knowledge of the legacy of Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the first black woman to work as a journalist at The Washington Post. I didn’t know that in 1961, after graduating from Columbia University’s School of Journalism, she was recruited to work at The Washington Post, becoming its first black woman reporter. I didn’t know that she interviewed black leaders during 1961 in an attempt to integrate the University of Mississippi, the university that my mother would attend 12 years later. I didn’t know that she served as president of the National Association of Black Journalists, an organization I credit for helping me return to journalism. I did not know that she is a “preacher’s kid,” who eventually started worshiping at church right around the corner from The Washington Post—Metropolitan AME Church.
When I first learned of this woman three months ago, a wave of shame overcame me. How could I have gone this long not knowing her story? Thankfully, Dorothy is working to make sure that her story will never go untold. Her autobiography, Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More was recently published by Center Street. Since February, the 82-year old has been on a whirlwind press tour to promote it.
Dorothy grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where her father built Youngs Chapel AME Church. After graduating from Lincoln University and working in several black newspapers, she set out to achieve her goal of working for a daily newspaper. The pioneer graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism in 1961. After a summer in Africa, she was hired as the first black female reporter for The Washington Post, where she worked at the for 30 years as a reporter, editor, and columnist, all the while raising three daughters from her marriage to Sam Gilliam.
I recently had the opportunity to converse with the AME Church member. She talked with me for a special interview for The Christian Recorder.
TCR: Tell us about growing up in the AME Church in the 1940s and 1950s. Your father started Youngs Chapel AME Church in Louisville, Kentucky?
DBG: I didn’t grow up around white people. This is a total racially-segregated society. I was getting constant reaffirming messages from the church, community, and school. My whole upbringing had been in that black environment. As I look back over my life, I realized even more how important that upbringing was.
There was also the love and faith of my father and mother. My father was such a gentle and kind person at the same time. He brought the strength and vitality and presence of a minister. It was a wonderful, rich situation since there was the love of the people in the church. All that just gave me such a strong ethical core. Not that I’m perfect. The faith that my family had in God becomes a part of you in so many ways. It really was a wonderful way to grow up.
TCR: What prompted you to become a journalist?
DBG: I had gotten a job as a secretary at the Louisville Defender[a black bi-weekly newspaper] after school to help with my family. All the black people in Louisville read it. One day, the editor came to me and said, “We would send you out to write a story.” The society editor was ill. [He said] “I am going to send you out to write an article about what is going on.” It was the first evidence that journalism was the profession that would help me see and discover new worlds. He had me do another one. I was 17-years old. Louisville Defender, after that, I knew I wanted to be a journalist.
TCR: Although you made history as being the first black female reporter at The Washington Post, you referenced the Black Press a lot in your book. How important was the Black Press to your career development?
DBG: The black press was critical back in those days. The white media did not pay any attention to what was happening in the black neighborhood. The only thing they wrote was when they wrote about some heinous crime. I would later learn what a significant role they played in black progress.
When I graduated from secretary school, I was offered a job at the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee. I was able to go over to Little Rock when the nine young people were trying to integrate Central High School. My boss was beaten by a white mob. I got to meet a lot of the black reporters who covered the civil rights beat. They had so much courage to go behind the cotton curtain that the white people did not want to be told.
Then, I was offered a job at Jet Magazine in Chicago. It was during that time that I wanted to work for a daily newspaper. However, the only black daily newspaper was the Atlanta Daily World and I knew I didn’t want to return to the South.
By the time I got to The Washington Post, I had four years in the Black Press. When I started at The Washington Post, I sought out people from the Black Press, especially Jet Magazine, to help me understand Washington, DC. My relationships with them were strong and good.
TCR: Were you nervous that first year working for The Washington Post?
DBG: My nervousness was more on the first day. One of the professors at Columbia said the following to me, “You have so many handicaps that you will probably not make it.” Back then, he was trying to tell me something helpful. Not only did I have to deal with race but also gender. I was diving into a sea of white men. There were a few white women but not that many and I wasn’t sure I could swim.
TCR: Tell me about your first few years at the Post.
DBG: The first few years were very difficult. Washington was a really segregated southern town. Just trying to get taxis to take me to my assignments was horrible. It was like an invitation to be abused.
Once, I went to cover the 100th birthday back in the 60s of some white woman. When I went to the front door, someone told me that the maid entrance is in the back. It was like he said you don’t belong here. Go down to the back.
There was also still a real redneck streak inside the Post. I heard someone say, “We don’t cover black deaths because they are just cheap deaths.” I didn’t feel like I could tell the Posteverything that was happening to me. I just had to suck it up. Since I was a child of God, I knew that what other people thought of me didn’t define me but that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt me. I was, by the grace of God, able to do what I did.
TCR: Anything else you want to say about your faith and religion?
DBG: The black religious experience was such an essential part of my career, even when I wasn’t a member of the AME Church in Washington. The love and the support and faith and all those things that came from my family and from being a preacher’s daughter were so important. I got lots of love as a little girl. All those things were so important in the segregated era. I had to suffer the humiliations of white supremacy. It’s a very important part of my journey. Upon reflection, I see what they gave me despite society trying to say black people weren’t serious. If you knew you were a child of God, there was no way you could swallow those lies. Those are important points.
