During Black History Month, we're very happy to have Courtney Shareef, Project Director at The HistoryMakers, join us on Zoom all the way from Chicago to dig into this amazing resource that  Wakefield patrons can access through our website. Courtney will provide tips and tricks for getting the most out of the vast amount of information available in this archive of digital interviews, as well as giving us a taste of some of the interviews along the way. 

ABOUT THE HISTORYMAKERS
The HistoryMakers, a 501 (c) (3) national non-profit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to creating the largest digital repository of the Black experience. In 2014, it was announced that the Library of Congress would serve as the permanent repository for The HistoryMakers Collection. To date, the organization has interviewed over 3,300 African American HistoryMakers in U.S. 413 cities and towns as well as abroad, including Alonzo Pettie, the oldest living black cowboy and statesman 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”; civic leaders C.T. Vivian and Marion Wright Edelman; music icons Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones; business leaders former Amex CEO Ken Chenault, Merck CEO Ken Frazier, former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns; 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 younger HistoryMakers like New York Times columnist Charles Blow, artist innovator Theaster Gates, museum director Thelma Golden, restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, and entrepreneur Daymond John. The HistoryMakers Digital Archive also makes the collection available to K-12 public schools, 80 colleges and universities, and public libraries -- with more being added.