Black history was missing from libraries. We changed that.
Have you ever heard of Alonzo Pettie, the oldest living Black cowboy? Or The Golden Thirteen, the nation's first Black Naval officers? What about all-Black towns like Mt. Bayou, Blackdom, and Allensworth? The legacy of Black life in the United States has profoundly shaped the country, but too often, we've failed to document and preserve the histories of Black Americans. That's why Julieanna L. Richardson created HistoryMakers, the nation's largest African American video oral history archive. In this joyful, inspiring talk, Richardson tells us the incredible stories of Black Americans she's interviewed for her archive and explains why we must preserve records of Black experiences for future generations.