BlackPast.org
Encyclopedia
BlackPast.org is a web-based free content
reference center that is dedicated primarily to the understanding of African American history
and the history of people of African
ancestry. In 2011 the American Library Association's Reference and User Services Association included it in its list of the 25 Best Free Reference Websites of the Year
According to Blackpast.org, the website has a global audience of about two million visitors per year from over 100 nations. In 2009, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Brazil, and Germany ranked as the top five countries in visitors to the site after the United States.A 2008 website review described it as easily navigable and well organized but also as containing omissions among some features and as a work in progress. By 2009, the organization was selected by New York Public Library reference librarians as one of the top 25 hybrid print and electronic resources for the year.
. The initial website, designed by his teaching assistant George Tamblyn, was intended primarily as a research aid for those students and mainly featured short vignettes of significant people, places and events in African American history. Under the direction of Dr. Taylor's daughter Jamila, the website was redesigned the following year to incorporate a new architecture and improved navigation features using Dreamweaver, creating the basis for a resource that would serve a larger research audience. In Spring 2005, Dr. Taylor received an email from a New Zealand researcher who had accessed the site. This was followed by correspondence from Russian students who had viewed the site. This led to a U. S. State Department-sponsored tour of Russian universities by Dr. Taylor.
When it became evident that the site was being used outside of the campus community, additional features were added including a bibliography, timeline, links to related websites, major speeches, digital archives and genealogy
sections. With the addition of a Bullitt research assistant and a high school intern, the website staff had grown to five by the end of its second year. In 2006, the website received its first funding when University of Washington History Department Chair John Findlay and the school's Office of Minority Affairs Director Nancy "Rusty" Barceló each agreed to provide $10,000 for website expansion. The seed money was used to hire Grip Media of Portland, Oregon to design a professional web presence for BlackPast.org. That year, the number of visits received by the site exceeded 150,000, and it recorded 4.4 million hits.
On February 1, 2007, the new Drupal
-based website was launched with a small ceremony in the University of Washington History Department. The site opened with approximately 600 entries, 100 speeches, 80 full text primary documents and seven major timelines. New sections that were added included New Perspectives, a section that featured accounts and descriptions of important but little known events in African American history. In 2007, the site surpassed the 455,000 mark in annual visits with over 12.7 million hits.
More than 200 volunteer historians, scholars and university students have contributed historical entries since the site's inception. In November 2007, BlackPast.org was formed as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Washington. Board members at time of formation were George Tamblyn, Jamila Taylor and Dr. Taylor. On March 28, 2008, with a staff of 10, BlackPast.org was officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Also that year, the organization received a $10,000 grant from Humanities Washington for project work including photo copyright acquisition.
In 2009, the organization was selected by New York Public Library
reference librarians as one of the top 25 hybrid print and electronic resources for the library's Best of Reference list, "an annual list of books, websites, and electronic resources selected by a committee of librarians for their usefulness in branch reference collections." The following year, BlackPast.org was selected by the Library of Congress
(LOC) to become part of the LOC's web archiving project, a commitment with the International Internet Preservation Consortium
to record a "rich body of Internet content from around the world." (See also National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
.) That project is currently in the cataloging phase, and the BlackPast.org content will be available sometime in 2011.
Since its inception, all content has been reviewed for accuracy and relevance by Dr. Taylor and a team of copyeditors prior to publication. Taylor said in a 2008 interview, "The site is the biggest thing I've ever done as far as its reach and impact," adding, "I've received e-mails from China, Nigeria, South Africa and from the Netherlands. Where we think we have a self-interest in African American history, it's pleasing to me that folks in Russia and Mexico want to know the story. That is what drives me to continue on with this important work of unraveling the history of the African American people."
Free content
Free content, or free information, is any kind of functional work, artwork, or other creative content that meets the definition of a free cultural work...
reference center that is dedicated primarily to the understanding of African American history
African American history
African-American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are the descendants of captive Africans held in the United States from 1619 to 1865...
and the history of people of African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
ancestry. In 2011 the American Library Association's Reference and User Services Association included it in its list of the 25 Best Free Reference Websites of the Year
According to Blackpast.org, the website has a global audience of about two million visitors per year from over 100 nations. In 2009, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Brazil, and Germany ranked as the top five countries in visitors to the site after the United States.A 2008 website review described it as easily navigable and well organized but also as containing omissions among some features and as a work in progress. By 2009, the organization was selected by New York Public Library reference librarians as one of the top 25 hybrid print and electronic resources for the year.
History of the organization
BlackPast.org was founded in January 2004 when Dr. Quintard Taylor, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. The initial website, designed by his teaching assistant George Tamblyn, was intended primarily as a research aid for those students and mainly featured short vignettes of significant people, places and events in African American history. Under the direction of Dr. Taylor's daughter Jamila, the website was redesigned the following year to incorporate a new architecture and improved navigation features using Dreamweaver, creating the basis for a resource that would serve a larger research audience. In Spring 2005, Dr. Taylor received an email from a New Zealand researcher who had accessed the site. This was followed by correspondence from Russian students who had viewed the site. This led to a U. S. State Department-sponsored tour of Russian universities by Dr. Taylor.
When it became evident that the site was being used outside of the campus community, additional features were added including a bibliography, timeline, links to related websites, major speeches, digital archives and genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
sections. With the addition of a Bullitt research assistant and a high school intern, the website staff had grown to five by the end of its second year. In 2006, the website received its first funding when University of Washington History Department Chair John Findlay and the school's Office of Minority Affairs Director Nancy "Rusty" Barceló each agreed to provide $10,000 for website expansion. The seed money was used to hire Grip Media of Portland, Oregon to design a professional web presence for BlackPast.org. That year, the number of visits received by the site exceeded 150,000, and it recorded 4.4 million hits.
On February 1, 2007, the new Drupal
Drupal
Drupal is a free and open-source content management system and content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and...
-based website was launched with a small ceremony in the University of Washington History Department. The site opened with approximately 600 entries, 100 speeches, 80 full text primary documents and seven major timelines. New sections that were added included New Perspectives, a section that featured accounts and descriptions of important but little known events in African American history. In 2007, the site surpassed the 455,000 mark in annual visits with over 12.7 million hits.
More than 200 volunteer historians, scholars and university students have contributed historical entries since the site's inception. In November 2007, BlackPast.org was formed as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Washington. Board members at time of formation were George Tamblyn, Jamila Taylor and Dr. Taylor. On March 28, 2008, with a staff of 10, BlackPast.org was officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Also that year, the organization received a $10,000 grant from Humanities Washington for project work including photo copyright acquisition.
In 2009, the organization was selected by New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
reference librarians as one of the top 25 hybrid print and electronic resources for the library's Best of Reference list, "an annual list of books, websites, and electronic resources selected by a committee of librarians for their usefulness in branch reference collections." The following year, BlackPast.org was selected by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
(LOC) to become part of the LOC's web archiving project, a commitment with the International Internet Preservation Consortium
International Internet Preservation Consortium
-Projects:IIPC sponsored a project on "cross-archival search strategies" which included the creation of an archive focused on the 2010 Winter Olympics....
to record a "rich body of Internet content from around the world." (See also National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is an archival program led by the Library of Congress to archive and provide access to digital resources. The U.S. Congress established the program in 2000...
.) That project is currently in the cataloging phase, and the BlackPast.org content will be available sometime in 2011.
Since its inception, all content has been reviewed for accuracy and relevance by Dr. Taylor and a team of copyeditors prior to publication. Taylor said in a 2008 interview, "The site is the biggest thing I've ever done as far as its reach and impact," adding, "I've received e-mails from China, Nigeria, South Africa and from the Netherlands. Where we think we have a self-interest in African American history, it's pleasing to me that folks in Russia and Mexico want to know the story. That is what drives me to continue on with this important work of unraveling the history of the African American people."
Information provided on the site
- Transcripts of nearly 200 speeches and over 100 primary documents including court decisions, laws, organizational statements, government reports, and executive orders impacting people of African ancestry around the world.
- Nine major timelines forming a chronology of events from 5,000 BCE to the present while five major bibliographies list nearly 4,000 books categorized by author, title, subject, and date of publication.
- Six "gateway" pages with links to digital archive collections, museums, and research centers, genealogical research websites, and over 500 other website resources on African American and global African history. Those links include all of the major black newspapers in the United States as well as the most significant newspapers and magazines in Africa and leading periodicals devoted to people of African ancestry in the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America.
- A section called Perspectives Magazine presents commentary on important but little known events in black history often written by individuals who participated in or witnessed them.
- Black History Month provides information on the annual celebration of African American history and culture.
- The Barack ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
Page, which is a reference center for information related to the 44th President of the United States. - Major Black Officeholders since 1641, which lists hundreds of black officeholders since the American colonial era. This list includes all past and current African American members of the U.S. Congress as well as other officeholders and political appointees.
See also
- History of slavery in the United StatesHistory of slavery in the United StatesSlavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
- List of museums focused on African Americans
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
- Black History MonthBlack History MonthBlack History Month is an observance of the history of the African diaspora in a number of countries outside of Africa. Since 1976, it is observed annually in the United States and Canada in February, while in the United Kingdom it is observed in October...
- February - Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryAssociation for the Study of African American Life and HistoryThe Association for the Study of African American Life and History is an organization dedicated to the study and appreciation of African-American History. It is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 1915 and incorporated in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 1915 as...
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation ProgramNational Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation ProgramThe National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is an archival program led by the Library of Congress to archive and provide access to digital resources. The U.S. Congress established the program in 2000...