Ideas worth spreading

The mission to safeguard Black history in the US

1,517,565 views | Julieanna L. Richardson • TEDxMileHigh

Black history in the US is rich, profound -- and at risk of being lost forever, if not for the monumental efforts of Julieanna L. Richardson. As the founder of The HistoryMakers -- the largest national archive of African American video-oral history -- Richardson shares some of the unknown and incredible legacies of Black America, highlighting the importance of documenting and preserving the past for future generations.

Black history in the US is rich, profound -- and at risk of being lost forever, if not for the monumental efforts of Julieanna L. Richardson. As the founder of The HistoryMakers -- the largest national archive of African American video-oral history -- Richardson shares some of the unknown and incredible legacies of Black America, highlighting the importance of documenting and preserving the past for future generations.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMileHigh, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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Donate to The HistoryMakers to help preserve Black history.

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About the speaker

Julieanna L. Richardson

Julieanna L. Richardson

Founder of The HistoryMakers

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Julieanna L. Richardson has a diverse background in theatre, television production, and the cable television industry that created a unique path to founding and heading up the largest national collection effort of African American video oral histories on record since the WPA Slave Narratives. T

December 2020 | Watch

"The HistoryMakers 20@2020: Then and Now"

In this interview conducted by TV journalist Juan Williams in 2020 as part of The HistoryMakers 20th anniversary celebration, Richardson shares how her combined background in theatre arts and American Studies fused to create a living record of African American life, history and culture and why that record is more relevant now than ever be.

December 2020 | Watch

"The Crisis of Black Archives"

Richardson moderates a discussion with two former directors of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Howard Dodson (1984-2011) and Khalil Muhammad (2011 – 2016). Together, they discuss the challenges faced by repositories of primarily African American materials and identify the steps necessary for a path forward.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMileHigh, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Donate to The HistoryMakers to help preserve Black history.

Subscribe to our newsletter, which shows how the archive fills in the gaps of history.