Tressie McMillan Cottom

I Believed in the Promise of Hillman College. What Happened?

By Tressie McMillan Cottom

When “A Different World” premiered on NBC in 1987, the Black Power era was giving way to diversity initiatives and Black America was moving to the center of popular culture. Michael Jackson was the new Beatles, my grandmother would soon deem Oprah Winfrey’s episode about “Dirty Dancing” too spicy and the Jet magazine that arrived in the mail still published a schedule of every appearance of an Afro-American on network television that week.

The show’s two-part fifth season finale, “Save the Best for Last,” is a time capsule of Black middle class life that flattered a generation best known for being forgotten. In it, Whitley Gilbert has to make a choice. Byron, the successful politician from Virginia, stands at the altar. Dwayne, the promising engineer, is shouting his bid for her hand from the aisle. Five years at Hillman College,........

© The New York Times