[WSCSS] Blackpast.org, Remembered and Reclaimed:

[Gary and Robyn Cressman]

Blackpast.org, Remembered and Reclaimed:
An Online Reference Center for Global African History Developed by Quintard
Taylor, The Scott & Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History,
University of Washington, Seattle
 
WEBSITE DESCRIPTION
January 1, 2008
 
URL:             www.blackpast.org <http://www.blackpast.org/>
 
Blackpast.org is broadly conceived to provide reference information on all
aspects of the global history of people of African ancestry. BlackPast.org
is supported by a staff of seven volunteers.  The website is free and
ungated. New features are being added to the site every day so please visit
it often. 
 
 
Blackpast.org includes:
 
1) An online encyclopedia featuring over 1,200 entries which describe
people, places and events concerning the history of people of African
ancestry around the world.  These entries are written by more than 200
professional historians and students of history including many who are the
leading experts on the subjects of their profiles.  Their contributions make
this website one of the largest online encyclopedias on the internet devoted
exclusively to African American history.
 
2) More than 1,200 photos and illustrations on the historical experience of
people of African ancestry.
 
3) The complete text of over 100 speeches by African Americans between 1789
and 2004.  
 
4) Over 100 full text Primary Documents‹court decisions, laws,
organizational statements, treaties, government reports and executive orders
which help describe the African American past.
 
5)  Seven major timelines that show the history of people of African
ancestry from 5,000 B.C.E. to today.
 
6)  Three bibliographies that list the major books on African American
history categorized by subfield and time period.  The largest of these
bibliographies, the one on general African American history, has over 1,200
entries.
 
7) Four ³Gateway² Pages with links to 50 digital archive collections, 75
African American museums and research centers, 12 genealogical research
websites and over 400 other website resources on African American history.
 
8) A Multimedia section which audio tapes from the 1963 Open Housing
Hearings conducted by the Seattle City Council.  Open Housing was the most
intensely debated political question in Seattle in 1963 and 1964. These
tapes are provided by the Seattle Municipal Archives exclusively to
blackpast.org to host. They provide a view of the debate in 1963.
 
This section also houses one minute clips from various documentaries
including Quilombo Country: AfroBrazilian Villages in the 21st Century, The
Carl Maxey Story, In Pursuit of Social Justice: An Oral History of the Early
Years of Diversity Efforts at the University of Washington and Rising From
the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porters. These clips provide a sampling
of the various documentaries now or soon to be available on the global
history of people of African ancestry.
 
9) Perspectives on the Global History of African People features
descriptions and discussions of important but little known events or
episodes in black history or commentary about these developments often by
the individuals who participated in them or witnessed them. Many of these
accounts are instant primary sources.
 
Website Statistics: This is the combined total for bothblackpast.org and the
Taylor Faculty Website which carried this information before Feb. 1, 2007.
The first group shows ³Life of the Site² statistics.  The second group
displays the statistics for 2007 only.
 
Number of Visits Since Jan. 1, 2006                    1,293,985
Number of Hits Since, Jan. 1, 2006                  17,378,020
Number of Nations originating Visits Since 2006              104
 
Number of Visits for 2007
821,722
Number of Hits for 2007                                         11,422,706
 
Blackpast.org will make accessible to a world wide audience both new and
existing information that heretofore has been scattered across the Web.  It
is rapidly becoming the ³Google² of global African history.