About HistoryMakers (Trial until 6/30/2019)
Description: The HistoryMakers collection in Black Studies Center is a primary source archive of filmed oral history interviews of contemporary African Americans who have shaped modern history. The archive represents the authentic voices of a diverse group of African Americans who have made significant contributions to history and politics, education, law, the creative arts, science and medicine, business, the military, and sports. This resource allows users to see and hear candid, direct contemporary histories, adding a dynamic, human quality to research and education. The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit organization founded in July 1999, has as its mission to educate and demonstrate the breadth and depth of the African American experience through first person narratives of both well-known and unsung African Americans. In doing so, The HistoryMakers's goal is to capture American history one person at a time, giving those involved their special place in history to educate the world about African American determination and achievement as well as about the importance of African American-led institutions, movements, and organizations. Not since the recording of former slaves during the WPA Movement of the 1930s, when teams of writers were sent throughout the Southern states to interview approximately 2,300 people, has there been such a methodic and wide-scale attempt to capture the testimonies of African Americans. The ProQuest resource includes a carefully curated collection of 100 persons interviewed by The HistoryMakers, with videos and complete transcripts. The people included represent a wide range of experiences, locations, occupations, and subjects. Each interview video and corresponding transcript has been meticulously subject-indexed and segmented by The HistoryMakers' expert staff. The transcripts are fully searchable. The collection may be browsed by the name of the interviewee, his or her occupation, subject and by theme. Each interview includes a record with details of the recording, indexed subjects, locations, and dates. Each record links to the transcript and video. The transcript and the video are sub-divided into segments which have been subject indexed according to topic discussed in the interview section. In addition, brief biographies are available from the full record page. The HistoryMakers collection may be searched by keyword, across the name of the interviewee, occupation, subjects, location, and dates. After searching, the list of results allows user to view relevant video segments and read the transcript for those sections of video. Video clips may be created by the user and saved in MyArchive. In addition, the videos may be viewed with or without a running caption from the transcript.

Concurrent Users: unlimited

Other info: always proxy off-campus, provides full text

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