INTERVIEW: Willie Hilliard is running for 6th District City Council

Highland Park resident Willie Hilliard is a candidate for the 6th District City Council seat.

The 6th District is a long skinny district that stretches from Ladies Mile in Northside, picks up part of the East End around Mosby, includes downtown from 2nd Street to 14th Street, then across the river to Manchester, part of Oak Grove, and on down to Bellemeade Road.

Richmond-native Willie Hilliard grew up in Providence Park and graduated from John Marshall High School before heading off to Norfolk State where he studied Accounting. A small business owner, Hilliard has been at the helm of Trent’s Barbershop on Brookland Park Boulevard for 24 years.

Hilliard was a candidate for the 3rd District City Council seat in 2020, coming in 3rd with 27% of the vote in a tight 3-way contest where he was out-spent 5-to-1 by the eventual winner.

We met with Willie Hilliard at Gold Lion on Thursday, August 1st. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

What prompted you to become civically engaged?

“I’m the son of a Black Panther, my mother was a Black Panther so community was something that she always instilled in me, as well as my grandmother and my aunt who actually raised me.

I guess I got started really probably in 2005, and I don’t even know how, but I remember doing a strategic action plan for RPS. And it just started from there. And then in 2009, the leadership of the Brooklyn Park Business Association basically left and they asked me to take it over. And I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Q: What’s prompting you to make the jump and run for office?

“Over the years, I have been able to meet a lot of great people, especially in City Hall, the workers who get the work done, and I’ve been able to help folks that way.

When Dwight Jones was still the mayor, a hurricane came through here and it knocked over a big tree in a lady’s yard that I knew over in Northside. He took a promo picture with the tree, you know, as this thing about how the city is doing their part to get it straight for everyone. And they didn’t. I mean, they got the tree up, but the lady’s sidewalks [were messed up], and because it fell completely on her house, it tore her porch up – she couldn’t come out of her house. She was 80 years old. You know, and they didn’t do anything after they took the tree away. So I was able to call some folks and got it done.

It started from there. And then you know a few other folks called and they needed this done and another…

I really got involved in the politics in 2016 when Levar Stoney came to me and said that he wanted me to help him win the 3rd District. And I was like, who me? All I do is show up and vote, I don’t do anything else, you know. And I did help though, and he won – and that kind of started it. I still didn’t have a thirst for politics. I’m not a politician.

But it got frustrating to the point of dealing with the [City Council] reps that we had. We could only do so much as a citizen and it comes to the point that a Council person has to take it from there. And our [3rd District] Council person wasn’t taking it from there. So it got really frustrating and I’m gonna say a few people started to push at me that we’d love to take you to run against that person.”

Q: What did you learn from running last time?

“That I needed to have an infrastructure in place. My message got out, but it was the fact that I was the only one getting it out there. Whereas I have multiple people this time with me, so I have an actual team structure that I didn’t really have the first time.”

Q: You’ve said that you won’t take corporate money. Can you talk about that?

“I can’t be bought and I won’t be bought. We didn’t raise a lot money last time and still brought in 27-28% of the vote.

Even if we were on that side of taking corporate dollars, we already know they all going to the incumbent because she’s been taking them for years. So they still wouldn’t come to us either way.”

Q: There seems to be an affinity between your campaign and Richmond for All, and you also had an event a few days ago with AJ Brewer. This is a big tent.

“The thing about Brewers Café – it led to the opportunity to talk to a lot of people. He wasn’t for it. He wasn’t for it at all until I pitched the [free] haircuts.

I caught a little flack from my team about it. The way I explained it to them was that, I remember what happened, but I told them I’ve experienced some of the same things – people tried to excoriate me behind my stance on Jason Kameras’ renewal of his contract. So I caught it for that. I didn’t catch it like he caught it.

I would not do that to someone publicly. If I had a problem with you, I’m going to come to you. And if I don’t like your business, I’m just not going to go there. But at the same time, I would never bash another Black business person, regardless of what they do – I just won’t go there.

So that was my whole thing, but I’m pro-choice all day. I’ve dealt with Planned Parenthood, the whole nine. I have four daughters. I wish anyone could tell them what they could or could not do with their bodies.

It achieved what I needed it to achieve, I got to talk to a bunch of folks that day.

I’m a people person. I mean, I’ve heard it for my affiliation with Richmond for All. But my first thing is how you treat me.

And then you have people that support you, that don’t always agree with you. But I’m not gonna excommunicate you because of that, unless you do something personal, that’s something else.”

Q: You caught some heat back in 2021 for an op-ed swinging at RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. Where are you at these days?

“My stance pretty much hasn’t changed. RPS needs a lot of work. And it’s still not getting done. And it doesn’t justify the contracts, the salaries that that administration makes. It doesn’t justify any of that. The results don’t. If the results were there, I could care less.

I’m a RPS parent, an alumni, and a longtime volunteer so I want RPS to thrive. But it’s a mess. So my stance is pretty much the same, to be honest.”

Q: Any last words?

“We’re just trying to do some change in this city. This city has grown tremendously in the last 20 years. But Highland Park has not grown. Bellmead has not grown. Hillside, Mosby – and I’m not talking about the projects, I’m talking about the community itself – those communities have not grown. They’re still left behind. These people are still complaining and not being heard. And these are the people that I stand with. These are the people that I come from and I grew up with.

You know, I might be a business owner, but I’m a renter as well. So, you know, I don’t have a lot of money. But so many people have been left behind. And it’s time to do some different things in this city. This city is getting priced out.”

 
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