The HistoryMakers

Founded in 2000 by Julieanna Richardson, The HistoryMakers, is a non-profit organization headquartered in Chicago that represents the only major attempt to record the black experience since the 1930s WPA Slave Narratives. With 3,300 interviews (11,000 hours) recorded in 413 cities and towns, Mexico, the Caribbean and Norway, The HistoryMakers archives provides first-hand accounts of African American history, culture. Those interviewed represent a variety of disciplines --including the arts, business, civic engagement, education, entertainment, law, the media, medicine, STEM, the military, music, politics, religion, sports, and fashion & beauty. They include the interviews of Alonzo Pettie, the oldest living black cowboy and statesman General Colin Powell; as well as poets Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. Also included are 211 of the nation’s top scientists including the late NASA mathematician and Hollywood movie Hidden Figures” Katherine Johnson; civic leaders C.T. Vivian and Marion Wright Edelman; music icons Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones; business leaders Merck CEO Ken Frazier and former American Express CEO Ken Chenault, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill, political leaders Congresswoman Maxine Waters and President Barack Obama (when he was an Illinois State Senator); New York Times columnist Charles Blow, artist innovator Theaster Gates, museum director Thelma Golden, restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, entrepreneur Daymond John, Equal Justice Initiative’s Bryan Stevenson and Black Lives Matter founders’ Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza. The interviews, lasting two to fifteen hours in length include recollections dating back to the 1700s and contain thousands of subjects including business, technology, the Great Migration, foodways, poetry, The Black Arts Movement, funeral rites, public health, modern music, LGBTQ, sciences, theology, integration, shifts in beauty culture, black feminism, and many others.

In 2014, the Library of Congress became The HistoryMakers permanent repository while heralding The HistoryMakers as a "one of a kind, unparalleled resource that is vitally important to the nation and the world and to those seeking a more complete record of our nation’s history and its people." The collection is housed at the Library of Congress’ Culpeper Packard Campus/National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. Perfect for online learning, users can access The HistoryMakers content from both desktop and portable devices, including smart phones throughThe HistoryMakers website (www.thehistorymakers.org) and The HistoryMakers Digital Archive which is available to faculty and students at 70 universities (e.g.Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, University of Virginia, Ohio State University, University of Michigan, University of Oregon, Howard University, Morgan University, the University of Alaska Anchorage) and public libraries in Chicago, Boston, Houston, New York, Cleveland, Houston, Milwaukee and other U.S. cities).

The HistoryMakers focus going forward is to be the digital repository for the black experience while elevating the culture equity of the African American community.