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The HistoryMakers Digital Archive

A Perfect Tool For These Times

Come learn first hand how others around the United States are using The HistoryMakers Digital Archive.

D.C. public library card holders can access The HistoryMakers from the comfort of their own homes, phones or digital devices. Learn more about this resource below and register to attend.

Over the past quarter of a century, The HistoryMakers has grown into the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. Storytelling, technology, preservation and AI have all played a role in this unique project to document the black experience. The interviews, each ranging two to fifteen hours in length, including thousands of subjects many who consider Washington, D.C. their birth or current home. They include those from business, technology, the Great Migration, foodways, poetry, The Black Arts Movement, funeral rites, public health, modern music, STEM, theology, integration, shifts in beauty culture, black feminism, and more. Contained within the collection are the stories of Alonzo Pettie, the oldest living black cowboy and statesmen Vernon Jordan and General Colin Powell; poets Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. Also included are 211 of the nation’s top scientists such as Katherine Johnson, who was featured in the Hollywood movie Hidden Figures; music icons Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones; business leaders former Amex CEO Ken Chenault, Merck CEO Ken Frazier; lawyers former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill; political leaders Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the late Congressman John Lewis, and President Barack Obama (when he was an Illinois State Senator); as well as New York Times columnist Charles Blow, artist innovator Theaster Gates, museum director Thelma Golden, restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, and entrepreneur Daymond John.

Toni Cook Bush

Antoinette Cook Bush is Executive Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs at News Corp. Ms. Bush joined the new News Corp from Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom LLP, where, over her nearly 20-year tenure, she rose to become the Partner in charge of its Communications Group. In this role, she represented leading media/entertainment and telecom entities in regulatory, legislative and transactional matters. Ms. Bush also served as Executive Vice President of Northpoint Technology Ltd. from 2001 to 2003. Prior to her first stint at Skadden, Arps, Ms. Bush served as Senior Counsel to the Communications Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has oversight for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In this role, she was the principal staff person responsible for legislation involving communications issues, including the Cable Television Act of 1992. From 1981 until she joined the U.S. Senate Committee staff, Ms. Bush practiced communications law in Washington, D.C.

Julieanna L. Richardson has a diverse background in law, theatre, television production, and the cable television industry that created a unique path to founding The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest effort to record the African American experience since the WPA Slave Narratives of the 1930s.

A 1980 graduate of Harvard Law School, Richardson graduated from Brandeis University with a double-major in Theatre Arts and American Studies, where she did extensive interviews of some of those involved in the Harlem Renaissance. She worked as a corporate lawyer at the Chicago law firm of Jenner & Block prior to serving in the early 1980s as the Cable Administrator for the City of Chicago Office of Cable Communications.

Richardson currently sits on the Honors Council of Lawyers for the Creative Arts; Simmons University Dean’s Advisory Council of the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities, and James Madison University’s Flowerings Advisory Council. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from Howard University (2012), Dominican University (2014), Brandeis University (2016) and Bates College (2023). She also served as the commencement speaker for Dominican University and Muhlenberg College as well as Brandeis University 65th commencement. In 2014, Black Enterprise magazine awarded Richardson its Legacy Award, its highest recognition of women’s achievement. That same year, Richardson was profiled in American Masters: The Boomer List, a PBS documentary and exhibition at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. She is a 2021 recipient of the Chicago History Museum’s John Hope Franklin Making History Award. Her 2022 Ted Talk The Mission to Safeguard Black History In the U.S. has garnered viewers worldwide. In 2023, CBS 60 Minutes featured her on its 2023 segment on The HistoryMakers.

George L. Daniels is a Reese Phifer Fellow and associate professor of journalism and creative media at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He’s a cum laude graduate of Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications where he graduated with a degree in news editorial journalism. After working for eight years as a local television news producer in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia and then in Cincinnati, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia, he earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in mass communication from The University of Georgia. He’s the co-editor of Teaching Race: Struggles, Strategies and Scholarship for the Mass Communication Classroom. He’s currently completing his first sole-authored book entitled Barrier Breakers: Media Educators Meeting the Diversity Challenge Across the Decades.

Jana Duckett, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of strategic communication at Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication with experience in public relations, digital communication, and social media marketing. She teaches courses in innovative thinking for strategic communication in political communication, social media, digital media, media literacy and vlogging. She is passionate about mentoring students and inspiring their drive for research, curiosity, inventiveness, and an overall excitement for using data to solve complex creative problems while also emphasizing the importance of maintaining a tech-life balance. Professor Duckett has been with Morgan State University since 2019. Her research interests include polymedia theory, social network theory, big data analysis, cloud protest, and media effects. Professor Duckett received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She received her Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Regent University.

Keith G. Pemberton II is a rising junior at Yale University, where he is pursuing a joint B.A./M.A. in History with a focus on international relations, Cold War diplomacy, and the Global South. His academic work explores the intersections of national security, post-colonial legal frameworks, and human rights.

Keith is actively involved in leadership, serving as Vice President of the Branford College Council and contributing to initiatives through Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. His research spans energy policy, civil rights, and global governance.

A strong advocate for African American history, Keith is passionate about preserving and sharing the stories of Black communities throughout American history. He is eager to engage with The HistoryMakers Digital Archive, contributing to its vital mission of documenting the lives and legacies of influential African American figures.

By combining his expertise in history, law, and international diplomacy, Keith aims to support initiatives that promote energy sovereignty and foster sustainable development across the Global South.

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