Kristine Guillaume becomes the third black editor and the first black women editor of the Crimson in its 145-year history.
Come 2019, Harvard University’s The Crimson newspaper will have its first black female editor.
Twenty-year-old Kristine E. Guillaume will take over the helm of the only daily paper in Cambridge, Massachusetts — which is entirely run by undergraduate college students.
The third-year student was elected after promising “to steer the paper to a more digital, diverse future.”
“If my being elected to the Crimson presidency as the first black woman affirms anyone’s sense of belonging at Harvard, then that will continue to affirm the work that I’m doing,” Guillaume told the New York Times.
The Harvard Crimson elects its most senior leadership role in a “Turkey Shoot” where all outgoing members of the paper vote. The new leader needs 75% of the vote in order to be elected.
Guillaume becomes the third black editor and the first black women editor, The New York Times reported, in the paper’s 145-year history.
The African American Studies and History and Literature major jokingly told the New York Times her parents had hoped she would spend less time at the Crimson and pursue a career in law. Guillaume’s parents are both immigrants and physicians.
The Crimson, which is the United State’s oldest daily student paper, has been edited by former US presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, former Microsoft head Steve Ballmer and CNN head Jeff Zucker among others.