Pharrell Williams promises to pay off college debt of North Texas student, NAACP leader
Grammy Award-winning rapper and producer Pharrell Williams announced Friday that he’s paying off the student debt of five NAACP youth leaders, and a North Texas student is one of them.
Channing Hill, of Euless, who will enter her senior year at Howard University in the fall, will have $18,000 paid off.
“I am just still awestruck,” she said. “It’s still sinking in every day, every second that I realize I just uncover more opportunities that are being provided to me.”
Hill and the four other students and recent graduates from historically Black colleges and universities found out that their loans would be paid during a panel discussion in Washington, D.C.. The panel was hosted by the NAACP and was a part of Williams’ three-day “Something in the Water” festival.
Hill said she felt the burden of having to carry tens of thousands of dollars of debt for getting her education, and it being paid off felt like a breath of fresh air.
Hill, a strategic legal and management communications major and the president of Howard’s NAACP student chapter, said she plans to go to law school and become an attorney.
Last fall, Hill helped lead the longest student protest in Howard’s history, demanding the school take action against inadequate student housing.
In February, Hill won an NAACP Image Award as Youth Activist of the Year for her role in the protest.
A step in narrowing the racial wealth gap
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson celebrated Williams’ promise to pay off the loans, but also continued to call on President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt, a move that he views as significant in narrowing the racial wealth gap.
The Biden administration is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower, a figure that leaders like Johnson have criticized as being too small.
Black student loan borrowers shoulder a disproportionate amount of debt, being the only racial group in the country whose median annual income is surpassed by their student loan debt.
Hill said as Black Americans try to heal generations of racial trauma, discrimination and a lack of resources through education, debt weighs down that progress.
Hill pointed out that the panel event happened across the street from the White House, where action to erase student debt has yet to be taken.
Hill said that amid the celebration, the five students acknowledged that the moment felt like a blessing or like luck and that this kind of relief is needed for everybody.
“I want my family to not be crippled by student loan debt,” she said. “I don’t want to feel lucky. I want to feel empowered.”
Hill’s father, Clarence, covers the Dallas Cowboys for the Star-Telegram.
