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The HistoryMakers

Chicago, Illinois

Grants

2024 (3 years)
$500,000

Founded in 2000, The HistoryMakers is a national research and educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans. Core to its approach is a belief that through combining the power of storytelling and traditional oral history with state-of-the-art technological innovation, a special act of care and memory is created for audiences at all levels. Through a variety of media formats, offerings, services, and events, The HistoryMakers enlightens, entertains, and educates the public, helping to fashion a more inclusive record of American history.

2023 (1 year)
$2,500

Based in Chicago, the HistoryMakers is a digital repository of oral history interviews with a wide variety of noted African American leaders. Its online archive is accessed by colleges, universities, K-12 schools, and public libraries, providing a lasting record of African American lives, accomplishments, and contributions through first-person testimony. With this award for professional development, HistoryMakers staff attends the Harvard Business School's Women of Color Leadership Program.

2021 ( 9 months)
$50,000

Based in Chicago, the HistoryMakers is a digital repository of more than 3,400 African American oral history interviews. Its archive includes video interviews with a wide variety of noted African American leaders and numerous lesser known figures in African American history. Its online archive is accessed by colleges, universities, K-12 schools, and public libraries, providing a lasting record of African American lives, accomplishments, and contributions through first-person testimony. This award supports a series of convenings with digitization experts to develop a plan to preserve the physical collections of African American leaders who are featured in its oral history interview archive.

2021 (3 years)
$225,000

Based in Chicago, the HistoryMakers is a digital repository of more than 3,400 African American oral history interviews. Its archive includes video interviews with a wide variety of noted African American leaders and numerous lesser known figures in African American history. Its online archive is accessed by colleges, universities, K-12 schools, and public libraries, providing a lasting record of African American lives, accomplishments, and contributions through first-person testimony. This award provides general operating support to HistoryMakers as part of the Foundation’s Culture, Equity, and the Arts program.

2006 (1 year)
$100,000

In support of transcribing and processing oral history interviews with African Americans.

2003 (1 year)
$100,000

To launch the HistoryMakers Education Institute, which will work to improve student literacy through the use of oral history tools.