The HistoryMakers

History and Activities

The HistoryMakers is a digital archive of oral and video interviews with African-American individuals telling their and their families’ histories. The digital archive was created in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to present first-hand accounts of African-American history. ¹

The HistoryMakers aims to create “a more inclusive record of American history” by detailing the accomplishments of African Americans across industries and making those first-hand accounts accessible free of charge. The HistoryMakers archive is held within the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ¹

The HistoryMakers focuses on recording the testimonies of well-known African Americans who contributed to American history and culture in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. These include actor James Earl Jones, President Barack Obama, and activist Angela Davis. As of 2026, the organization claimed to have collected 3,000 interviews with over 10,000 hours of recordings since its founding. ²

The HistoryMakers was founded in 2000 by Julieanna Richardson and claims to be the largest oral history archive of African American testimonials in the country. Following the reelection of President Donald Trump in 2025, the organization’s annual report that year claimed there were “escalating attacks on the teaching of Black history” as well as against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. As of 2025, the HistoryMakers sought to have its archives endowed, which would make it only the third endowed archive in the United States besides the Getty Research Center and the Rockefeller Archive Center. ⁴

Leadership

As of 2026, the president of the HistoryMakers was Julieanna Richardson, the organization’s founder. Previously, Richardson was the founder and CEO of SCTN Teleproductions, the founder and CEO of Shop Chicago, an acting cable administrator for the City of Chicago, and a corporate lawyer for Jenner and Block. ^{4 5}

Financials

According to tax filings, in 2024 the HistoryMakers reported $6,684,535 in revenue, $2,938,459 in expenses, and $17,117,210 in assets. Of its expenses, the HistoryMakers spent $2,087,302 producing a digital video and oral archive of African-American history. Of its revenue, the HistoryMakers received $4,970,494 from gifts, grants, and other contributions. ⁶

The HistoryMakers has received grants from businesses and large nonprofit organizations, including a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, a $250,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation, a $250,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, and $1 million gifts each from Baldwin Richardson Foods/Eric G. Johnson, the Boeing Company, Ursula Burns, the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, Andrea W. And Kenneth C. Frazier, and Lincoln Financial Group. ^{3 7}

In 2025, the HistoryMakers received $2 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $1.5 million from the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, over $1 million from the Alice W. Walton Foundation, over $500,000 from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, and over $100,000 from Bank of America.  ⁴

HistoryMakers launched a digitization initiative with a $50,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation, a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation, a $500,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, and $2 million in unrestricted funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. ⁴