Original version

BBC World Service East Asia

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

The Documentary: Archiving Black America

Archiving Black America

25/08/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Archiving Black America

Maya Millett speaks to the archivists amplifying the buried stories of African-Americans

Maya Millett speaks to the archivists amplifying the buried stories of African-Americans.

"We are our history," said James Baldwin. But how history is remembered depends on what materials survive, and who deems those materials worthy of preserving.
 
Maya Millett - a writer, editor and founder of Race Women, an archive project dedicated to honouring early Black American feminists - speaks to the archivists who are working to ensure the voices and stories of African-Americans are not forgotten.
 
As racism and violence against African-Americans continues, collecting, cataloguing, and preserving the truth has never been so vital in preventing the distortion of history. The historical record has the power to preserve legacies and shape identities - but it doesn’t write itself. History is an activity, and what makes it into the archives depends on the actions people take now.
 
With contributions from musician Rhiannon Giddens; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Director, Kevin Young; Julieanna Richardson, founder of The HistoryMakers (the largest collection of African-American first-person video oral history testimonies in the world); contemporary art curator Kimberly Drew (aka museummammy); and Fisk University Special Collections Librarian, DeLisa Minor Harris.

(Photo: Maya Millett. Credit: Laurent Chevalier)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

Archiving Black America

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service East Asia

About BBC World Service