BLACKPAST ORG
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
WITH PRIDE, Uplifting LGBTQ History on BlackPast.org
BlackPast.org has teamed with the Seattle-based Pride Foundation to produce a page that highlights the contributions of African Americans and persons of African ancestery who are also Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer. This page is specifically designed to challenge stereotypes held by persons of African ancestry and the LGBTQ community about each other and to prsent to the general audience the history of people who are in both communities.
101 African American Firsts
101 African American Firsts was established in 2010 to highlight little known African American achievers and to gather together on one place on the Internet the most significant and comprehensive list of black firsts available. Drawing on a variety of text and internet sources, the page has 170 entries covering fields including politics, law, diplomacy, the military, science and medicine, scholarship (education), arts and literature, media, music and dance, film and theater, radio and television, religion, business and labor, and sports.
Perspectives
Perspectives is one of BlackPast.org's oldest features. Here we allow authors to write about particular historical issues or questions. About half of the invited contributors are academic experts examining some aspect of African American or global African history. The other contributors are people who have a personal connection to a historical event. Their accounts are instant primary sources. One contributor represents a combination of these approaches. Professor James Banks, the founding director of the University of Washington Center for Multicultural Education, is a leading expert in his field but in 2007 he wrote one of the first Perspectives articles about the response of his hometown, Aubrey, Arkansas, to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. Board of Education. His article, "Remembering Brown: Silence, Loss, Rage, and Hope," has been read by over 72,000 people.
Preserving Martin Luther King County's African American History
http://www.blackpast.org/preserving-king-countys-african-american-history. This project focuses on the history and development of African Americans in Martin Luther King County, Washington
African Americans and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons)
This project is a history of African Americans and people of African ancestry around the world who have joined the LDS Church as well as the racial controversies surrounding church membership including the denial of the priesthood to African American males for more than 120 years.
Where we work
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Login and updateAwards
Among 25 Best Free Websites for 2011 2011
American Library Association
Charles Payton Award for Heritage Advocacy 2011
Association of King County (Washington) Historical Organizations
Best of Reference: Hybrid Print and Electronic Resources 2009
New York Public Library
External reviews

Videos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
BlackPast.org intends to be the major online resource center for the history of the more than one billion people of African ancestry around the world. We will do this by being the "Wikipedia" for historical information for African America and for global African history. Because the website is managed by academic professionals with years of knowledge and expertise in these subjects, we can (unlike Wikipedia and other history websites) ensure through our extensive vetting process that the information provided to the general public will be accurate, current, and reliable. We want to be the "first search" and in many instances, the final search for all things historical about African America and global Africa.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
BlackPast.org has assembled a group of scholars from throughout the world who have expertise in specific areas of African American and global African history. No one scholar can be expert in all the myriad areas but the managers of BlackPast.org are dedicated to identifying and bringing to the website those who are experts in discrete areas. No other website of this type is committed to assembling such expertise.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The website is led by a senior editor who has been specifically educated in this global approach to African American history and the world-wide history of people of African ancestry. While his specific research focus is African American history in the American West, he has a PhD. degree in the History of African Peoples from the University of Minnesota which in the 1970s housed the first graduate program in the nation to provide training in African American history, African history, and the history of people of African ancestry in the Caribbean and Latin America. Moreover the BlackPast.org leadership is committed to recruiting scholars with expertise in areas not yet covered on the website. That recruitment process is ongoing, meaning it will continue as long as BlackPast.org exists and history continues to be made by the populations profiled on this site.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We are well on our way to achieving the goals set out above. The greatest challenge lies in our ability to attract financial resources that will allow us to expand both our historical information gathering capacity and our ability to present this information to our large and growing global audience. We are now fundraising to expand and transform the platform used to provide that information. Sadly, that transformation has been slowed by the absence of resources. While individual donors have been exceedingly generous, we have had greater difficulty in attracting significant foundation or corporate support.
In sum BlackPast.org is experiencing amazing growth and success despite limited resources mainly because of the dedication of hundreds of volunteers, both staff and content contributors. Additional resources would allow us to grow our capacity to deliver far more information to an inquisitive and expanding global audience.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
BLACKPAST ORG
Board of directorsas of 06/27/2019
Christopher Jay
Merrill Lynch
Term: 2017 - 2019
Quintard Taylor
Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History, University of Washington, Seattle
Christopher Jay
Merrill Lynch
Virginia Wyman
The Ruins Private Restaurant
Hillel Cooperman
The Microsoft Corporation
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes