Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the trailblazing reporter who, in 1961, became the first Black woman hired as a reporter at The Washington Post, just donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe organized for recently laid-off Post Guild members, saying the newsroom cuts “made me very sad, even upset.” The donation came after mass layoffs at the paper.

“I was inspired by the people who work at the paper who continue to make a significant difference in the city,” Gilliam told Washingtonian, explaining why she contributed to the fund supporting her former colleagues. TheGrio reported that the GoFundMe has since raised more than $500,000 for affected staffers. 

Gilliam’s life and career make the contribution especially resonant. She freelanced for the Post from 1961 to 1965, returned as assistant editor of the Style section in 1971, and stayed in journalism through decades of change before retiring in 2003. In a moment when news organizations nationwide face staff cuts, Gilliam’s generous gift was a call to protect newsroom diversity and the local reporting that communities rely on. 

Despite her impressive history-making career in journalism, Gilliam faced many obstacles as she attempted to do her job and do it well. She outlined what it was like dealing with segregation in real time in her memoir, “Trailblazer.”

She recalled a memory during a book release event in 2019, “President John F. Kennedy was talking about some things that needed to happen for the Black population. But as a reporter, when I would get my daily assignment and go out to try to hail a taxi to cover it, it took forever. I would walk and try to write my story and get back to file it before the deadline.”

Journalists’ unions and press-freedom advocates have warned that layoffs disproportionately affect reporters of color, and Gilliam’s donation (both symbolic and practical) reveals the stakes: experienced local reporters often carry institutional knowledge and relationships that are hard to replace. 

For now, the GoFundMe and community support are offering short-term relief while industry observers continue to press for long-term solutions to preserve newsroom capacity and representation. With the death of DEI, any advances that Gilliam helped make are being dismantled not only in journalism but at large.

“It’s important for me not to let the things that are happening stop me from doing those things that I know are correct, those things that are positive, those things that can help,” she told Washingtonian. “That’s why I’m glad I was able to make a reasonable, monetary contribution.”