Saying Goodbye to the Ambassadorship, for Now!
To The HistoryMakers, I plan to be an ambassador for your mission for a lifetime!
As a 2022-2023 student ambassador for The HistoryMakers Digital Archive—the nation’s largest digital archive of African-American oral histories. Wellesley is a subscribing institution to The HistoryMakers which means that we have access to 11,000+ hours of primary source interview material from Black trailblazers in all disciplines imaginable such as CivicMakers, EducationMakers, PoliticalMakers, SportsMakers, etc. [more catered to their specific areas of teaching or leadership on campus] The HistoryMakers is revolutionary and necessary in the ways that it centers and uplifts Black experiences and expertise across disciplines. I have been able to expand the breadth and depth of understanding for the Black community and our richness and expertise across disciplines and across levels of the college. Collaborating with the Education department, Africana studies department, fashion organizations, our Vice President of the college, College Government, African Students Association, leading events, and participating in two HistoryMakers conferences.
As a student ambassador, my primary job has been to bring the incredible material and anecdotal accounts within The HistoryMakers Digital Archive to every classroom on campus. I want to ensure that every student and Professor has knowledge of how to navigate, utilize and implement The HistoryMakers in lesson plans, curricula, and research projects. I would love to connect with you and discuss how you can utilize The HistoryMakers. I would like to thank Ms. Richardson for her support and care for me. and all that you have taught me about the the essential nature of Black history.
Some meaningful quotes I found within the archive over the years included:
“I’m retired. I’m supposed to be retired. I don’t get no respect, but I’m supposed to be retired. I’ve been a pastor of churches for almost a half century. And I guess you might call me a professional agitator. I headed a civil rights organization for twenty-one years. And, even now, I chair a coalition of, of advocates in, in the state and across the region. So I guess my occupation is preacher, advocate, agitator.”
“(About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.): “When he called I was quite taken with it, he was coming to New York. He was going to be speaking at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem [New York, New York]. From that moment on, the more I became involved with him, the more I found myself not just being a spokesperson and funding many of the things in which he was doing, but I found myself becoming part of the planning group. And I became deeply, personally involved with his welfare and his destiny. The first thing was to put his life in order and to take care of his economic affairs. And because he was extremely sensitive to how he would be critiqued if he showed any affluence or any access to affluence, we had to be very careful because he would accept no money at all from the movement. He made $8,000 a year as a preacher, which is hardly enough to get a mousetrap. And here he was, having all these responsibilities heaped upon him. So I told him that from that day forward, I would be responsible for his family economically, that he should never worry that they would want for anything, including a guaranteeing of college education for all his children, and that he’d only have to worry about languishing in jail as long as he elected to stay there, but that there would always be bail bond money available to release him instantly if that was part of the strategy.”
[1] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 1, Slating of Joseph Lowery interview
[2] Harry Belafonte (The HistoryMakers A2000.077), interviewed by Danny Glover, November 2, 2000, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 13, Harry Belafonte talks about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement
