BLACKPAST ORG

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.

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.

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.

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.