The HistoryMakers Digital Archive

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive.
Between 1999 and 2005, Carnegie Mellon University and The HistoryMakers  (Julieanna Richardson, executive director) combined to produce 14,060 stories taken from 700 hours of video about 310 historically significant African Americans.

From the famous--Barack Obama (an Illinois state senator when interviewed) and Julian Bond--to the not-so-famous (Gloria Bacon, a physician who established The Clinic in Altgeld, a medically underserved housing project in Chicago, and banking executive Clark Burrus), the archive spotlights African Americans in a variety of fields and professions. About two-thirds of the interviewees are male. The oral interviews all follow the same format, allowing the interviewees great latitude in responding to standard questions. Easy to navigate, each biography is preceded by a mundane list of likes (favorite color, season, vacation spot) and a printed abstract.

This is followed by a series of separate segments that can be accessed after registering. Though relatively simple, the registration process does include some seemingly intrusive questions (two phone numbers and current salary, which can be declined). Once registered, users can access all the video clips, which include a printed text. Also available is a photo gallery. While watching and listening to each clip (most are only a few minutes in length), one can read the transcript that appears below. The clips provide a personal, individual view of growing up African American. Undergraduates will find the site useful as they investigate African American culture and life throughout much of the 20th century.
The site will help them with research in history, sociology, urban studies, business, arts and entertainment, and sports and medicine. Students will need to supplement material from the digital archive with other sources, as these are personal, individual accounts that should not be generalized to the population as a whole. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. -- D. R. Jamieson, Ashland University Reviewed in ACRL's July 2011 CHOICE.