Gilliam was born in
Memphis, Tennessee, on November 24, 1936. She was the eighth child of Adee Conklin Butler and Jessie Mae Norment Butler. When Gilliam was in her first year at Ursuline College (later merged with
Bellarmine University) she worked as a secretary for the weekly
Louisville Defender, an
African-American newspaper, and at 17 years old was unexpectedly made its society reporter. She was struck by how practicing journalism could expose her to "new worlds" different from her own. In 1957, she became a reporter for the Memphis
Tri-State Defender, part of the
Chicago Defender chain. There, she was hired by and worked for editor
L. Alex Wilson. When she watched on television at the Defender's offices, Wilson, who had gone to report the story, being beaten by a white mob during the 1957
Little Rock Nine school desegregation crises, she was shaken into action. Despite Wilson's prior warning that Little Rock was no place for "a girl" reporter, she insisted on going to cover the story. In addition to her career at
The Washington Post, she has been an activist dedicated to public service, from her days helping to organize protests against the
New York Daily News after it fired two-thirds of its African-American staff, to her tenure as president of the
National Association of Black Journalists from 1993 to 1995. She briefly taught journalism at
American University and
Howard University. Gilliam created the Young Journalists Development Program, which was designed to bring more young people into the journalism world, for
The Washington Post in 1997.
Post journalists work with students at local high schools, and in some cases, the
Post prints the high-school newspapers for the schools. In 2004, while she held the position of J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellow at The
George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, Gilliam founded Prime Movers Media, the nation's first journalism mentorship program for underserved students at urban schools. The program sends veteran journalists and university interns to mentor high school student journalists in
Washington, D.C. and
Philadelphia. The Washington Press Club awarded Gilliam its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. In 2023 Wilberforce University awarded her with an Honorary Doctorate for not only being a trailblazer, but also for her dedication and commitment to the school. In 2022 she established the Adee Butler Writing Center at Wilberforce University to honor her father. The National Center for Health Research awarded Gilliam its Foremothers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. She is a member of
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Gilliam was married to
Sam Gilliam, a well-known
abstract artist. They divorced in the 1980s but have three daughters (Stephanie,
Melissa, and
Leah) and also three grandchildren. ==Bibliography==