July 24, 2015

UW historian Quintard Taylor’s BlackPast.org website honored by National Education Association

BlackPast.org, an extensive online reference center for African-American history and African ancestry created by UW history professor Quintard Taylor, has been honored by the National Education Association.

The website has won the 2015 Carter G. Woodson Award, given annually by the education association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which Woodson founded.

Woodson (1875-1950) was a journalist, historian and author. In 1926 he announced celebration of “Negro History Week,” considered a precursor to the nationwide Black History Month. He also founded the Journal of Negro History.

The two associations give the Woodson Award each year to an individual, group or institution whose activities in Black affairs significantly impact education and the achievement of equal opportunity.

The award was announced July 2 during the National Education Association’s annual meeting, in Orlando, Florida. Taylor accepted the award.

Accepting the award, he told the nearly 2,000 meeting attendees: “You’re not honoring me, but the efforts of more than 700 volunteer content contributors and 12 volunteer staffers who work around the world, and around the clock, to make BlackPast.org possible. You are honoring those who share a single goal to make BlackPast.org the best place on the Internet to find historical information on African-Americans and people of African ancestry around the world.”

Citing the recent series of racial events around the nation, Taylor said “The racial crisis in America can be addressed by knowledge. Tension can be reduced by knowledge if people choose to use it. Once we begin to learn about each other, then we begin to respect each other.”

BlackPast.org’s 13,000 pages includes more than 4,000 entries; Perspectives Online Magazine, which features commentary on important but little-known events in Black history; the complete texts of nearly 300 speeches by African-Americans; and about 160 full-text primary documents, including court decisions, laws, government reports and executive orders.

For more information about BlackPast.org, contact Taylor at 206-543-5698 or qtaylor@uw.edu or J. Paul Blake, at 206-818-7523.

• Watch a video about BlackPast.org and Prof. Quintard Taylor’s acceptance speech.