Through my involvement with The History Makers organization, I am now officially archived in The Library of Congress in Washington, DC! So proud and honored to be a part of this great institution! Read all about it…
Background
The History Makers is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving African American history as the missing link in American history. Since 1999, The History Makers have been recording African American oral histories to refashion a more inclusive record of American history and to educate and enlighten millions worldwide. To date, it is the largest archive of its kind in the world.
The BIG News…
(From the Press Release)
The Library of Congress
Announced as Permanent Repository for
The HistoryMakers Collection
June 24, 2014
The Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, announced today the donation of a video archive of thousands of hours of interviews-The History Makers-that captures African-American life, history and culture as well as the struggles and achievements of the black experience.
“The History Makers archive provides invaluable first-person accounts of both well-known and unsung African-Americans, detailing their hopes, dreams and accomplishments-often in the face of adversity,” said Billington. “This culturally important collection is a rich and diverse resource for scholars, teachers, students and documentarians seeking a more complete record of our nation’s history and its people.”
“The History Makers represents the single largest archival project of its kind since the Works Progress Administration’s initiative to document the experiences of former slaves in the 1930s,” said Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The History Makers. “This relationship with the Library of Congress represents a momentous occasion for our organization. With the Library of Congress serving as our permanent repository, we are assured of its preservation and safekeeping for generations to come.”
The collection includes 9,000 hours of content that includes 14,000 analog tapes, 3,000 DVDs, 6,000 born-digital files, 70,000 paper documents and digital files and more than 30,000 digital photographs. The History Makers has provided the Library with digital files of all of the analog tapes.
“The collection is one of the most well-documented and organized audiovisual collections that the Library of Congress has ever acquired,” said Mike Mashon, head of the Library’s Moving Image Section. “It is also one of the first born-digital collections accepted into our nation’s repository.”
The collection boasts a long list of notables. They include President Barack Obama when he was an Illinois state senator, General Colin Powell, child advocate Marion Wright Edelman, baseball legend Ernie Banks, entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte, poet/writer Maya Angelou, historian Lerone Bennett, Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, movie producer Reuben Cannon, historian John Hope Franklin, publisher Earl Graves, singer Isaac Hayes, Attorney General Eric Holder, musician B.B. King, poet Nikki Giovanni and actors Diahann Carroll, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
An article by The New York Times announcing the collaboration: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/us/library-of-congress-to-host-collection-of-african-american-interviews.html
…The world’s largest archive of African American oral histories, and Washington has recognized and acknowledged its significance. Well Done!!
Peace,
R