The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), in collaboration with TikTok, honored the “HillmanTok” community and celebrated Black educators reshaping education and preserving Black history on the hort-form video content platform. 

The special event, held in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (March 11), spotlighted the growing impact of Black creators in making learning more accessible and engaging, specifically those a part of the #HillmanTok movement—a digital space inspired by A Different World’s fictional Hillman College. 

As part of the celebration, Black creators and HillmanTok educators visited Capitol Hill, where they met with members of Congress to showcase how #BlackTikTok is driving conversations around inclusive education and Black history preservation.

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Dr. Leah Barlow, the movement’s accidental founder, was joined by fellow educators like CPA Thurman Brooks, Gyllian Carter, and Kyra Brown. Each used TikTok to share knowledge in their respective fields, offering content in finance, STEM, humanities, and personal development.  

Dr. Barlow, an assistant professor at North Carolina A&T State University, decided to use TikTok to engage her students. Her content went viral almost instantly, gaining over 3.6M+ views and 550,000 followers in just one week. 

What started as a single course preview evolved into a larger digital learning community. The trend has seen over 955,000 searches and 3.5 million video views in just the past 30 days, according to its press release. 

From financial literacy tips to mental health advocacy, the platform is helping ensure that Black culture and history remain visible year-round.