Call it a Freedom School for the social media age.
Hundreds of Black professors are making their classes available to the public for free on TikTok.
Just as their analog predecessors sought to teach African American children through an informal network of Black-led classrooms beginning in the 1960s, this digital version attempts to broaden the community’s collective knowledge through online videos.
Meredith D. Clark, an associate professor of race and political communication at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said HillmanTok draws historical parallels to how Black people have found ways to education despite systemic pushback.
“I think about Freedom Schools,” said Clark, who is not offering a course on TikTok. “In order to give Black children the education they needed, we had folks who created Freedom Schools over the summer, over periods when public schools were shut down. This [HillmanTok], feels like sort of a callback to those kinds of moments.”
The informal collection of classes are collectively called “HillmanTok University,” a nod to the name of the fictional HBCU on the 1980s television show “A Different World.”
HillmanTok’s rapidly growing online community is led by instructors who currently work in higher education and others with deep professional backgrounds or lived experiences. Black women, who make up the bulk of the course leaders, are sharing videos, syllabi and homework assignments based on their specialities.
“It just exploded out of nowhere,” said Angela “AJ” Charles, 37, in Savannah, Georgia, a “student” of HillmanTok. “The next day I was enrolled in 15 classes and four electives.”
Started after the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump, the online community has quickly amassed over 300,000 followers and has over 400 courses for students to choose from like, “Pre-History of Hip Hop,” “Buying Land 101,” or “Intro to Resistance.”
There are no fees and no need to formally enroll in a class — “students” only scroll through their TikTok feed, find a course that interests them, click and tune in.
Participants said they see HillmanTok as a way to preserve and swiftly share the wealth of information that Black educators have, especially in the wake of diversity, equity and inclusion reversals by the Trump administration.
“The desire is there, the want is there,” said Charles, who is a ride-share driver who also creates content for the site. “We want education, but it’s not always accessible.”
An accidental university
Leah Barlow, a liberal studies professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, unintentionally began the movement after she uploaded a video intended for the 30 students who are enrolled in her African American studies class this spring semester.
Instead, the video was seen by millions of viewers who commented on and virtually enrolled in her class.
“She was talking directly to her class and all of us just assumed it was a joke,” said Charles. “We’re not used to professors coming on and being like, ‘This is your course. This is what you’re doing.’ She was so direct and matter of fact about everything that we were just like, oh, OK, well, I guess I have to get my pen.”
Within the next week, the trend evolved into the creation of HillmanTok.
Tomeika Williams-Lamar, 40, an assistant professor of accounting at Albany State University in Georgia, is teaching an “Accounting 101” class on the app. With hundreds of students, she has seen her account grow from 5,000 followers to over 20,000 in a week.
“To provide a platform where I’m not regulated, I’m not told that I have to teach this over that … that’s my way of giving back to my community, but doing it in a way that suits my personality, my teaching style. It allows me to encourage and impact others in a way that I didn’t think that I ever could before,” said Williams-Lamar.
Danielle “Danni” Harris, 46, an information technology project manager in Jacksonville, Florida, teaches “Intro to Photography” to nearly 300 students. Harris, who owns a photography studio, said that HillmanTok is pushing her to pursue her goal of becoming a travel photographer.
“This forced me into a space that I should have been in a long time ago,” said Harris. “With starting businesses and taking steps forward, we hesitate because we doubt ourselves. I feel like it [HillmanTok] put me in that spot where I was supposed to be — to teach, to show what I’ve learned and then along the way I’m learning from different people.”
In addition to teachers, HillmanTok has administrative faculty such as a president and dean of admissions, and student support services like a mental health therapist.
Yamara Nolen, 40, in Sanatoga, Pennsylvania, has jokingly appointed herself as “director of residence life” of HillmanTok, after reflecting on her previous work experience as an assistant director of residence life.
“We are going to have a place to have community and have those poetry slam nights and things we would necessarily do in the dorms or at the student center, but we can have it virtually,” she said.
The fictional HBCU also allows individuals to experience a new culture.
“I went to a predominantly white institution, so I feel a sense of community,” said Maranda Henderson, 29, in Portland, Oregon.
“This is the first time that I really get to see educators that look like me,” added Henderson, who is taking a Spanish class on the app.
Comments under HillmanTok videos have brought up the idea of moving the community to another site, since the future of TikTok is unknown.
“I want it to be inclusive, but I also want it to be just for us,” said Charles. “I want people who are respectful and to understand that this is something that is for Black people, since it was majority Black women, Black professors, Black doctors, and Black men who were championing this, who were posting their content and who were sharing their information.”