Campus Highlights

Bluford Library Archives: The Klodd Hopper, Aggieland’s Oldest Holiday Festival

In 1940, Dean Warmoth T. Gibbs Sr. mailed surveys out to alumni to prepare for A&T’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations. One of the survey questions asked alumni what some of their fondest memories of Aggieland were; Dr. Roscoe T. Ward ‘1915 (Ward Hall), Simon A. Haley ‘1918 (Alex Haley’s father) and several others listed the “Klodd Hopper” as a favorite.

The Klodd Hopper, or “Klod Hop” was a New Year’s dance and campus celebration that pre-dated Homecoming as A&T’s “first social of national importance” by nearly three decades. The event’s name was a play on “clod hopper” which meant a rustic, peasant person, casually used for agricultural persons. The spelling of the “Clod Hop” name would vary from year to year.

The Klod Hop began in the late 1890s as a Christmas social sponsored by President James B. Dudley for agricultural students who could not afford to go home during the holidays. Taking place on or right after New Years Day, the Klod Hop was famously filled with the beauty and décor of Christmas evergreen trees and guest would enjoy dancing and delicious food. The “Klod Hoppers” was also the name of an organization of students, faculty, and alumni who would meet during this social to discuss matters of importance to the college.

By the 1920’s, N.C. A&T’s Klod Hop gained a reputation as “the leading social event” for African-Americans in North Carolina. Not just for current students anymore, delegations of alumni would return from around the country every January. The event would also attract faculty and alumni from other HBCUs. National historically black newspapers would publish notes on these events. Attendees included a who’s who of the great Aggies and Greensboro community figures of yesteryear like the great thespian and drama teacher, Richard B. Harrison (Harrison Auditorium), President F. D. and Hazel Bluford, Dr. Simon P. Sebastian (Sebastian Health Center) and his wife Martha J. O. Sebastian, the first Black public librarian in Guilford County.

The Klod Hop waned in the early 1930s but regained strong interest from the Alumni Association and students during the 1934 Homecoming. The Klod Hop returned with a renewed spirit the following January. During World War II the Klod Hop was the major event for students to “swing to the jive” and it would continue as a top student social event until the mid-1960s. By that time the “Clod Hop” moved to springtime as one of the last campus events of the academic year.

The A&T College 50th anniversary surveys are part of the Warmoth T. Gibbs Collections at the F. D. Bluford Library Archives and Special Collections. Confirmed images of the Klod Hopper socials are scarce. If you have any information about this story, or would like to learn more about A&T History please contact us at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.