The HistoryMakers

06/13/2024

A new ancestor: The late, great Dr. Nathan Hare speaking at Chicago's Institute of Positive Education in 1978.

05/19/2024

Services for A Great Black Woman of the Arts!

05/12/2024

04/05/2024

Just learned from The HistoryMakers about another Dayton ancestor: I interviewed Ellaena Fairhurst (nee Hart) in Martha's Vinyard back in 2018.

Automobile sales entrepreneur Ellenae Fairhurst was born on January 6, 1943 in Dayton, Ohio to Dunbar High School football coach Jack J. Hart Sr. and Ellen Nora Hart. Fairhurst graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Dayton, Ohio in 1961. She earned her B.S. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1965, and her M.A. degree in social and consumer psychology from the University of Detroit in 1973.

Fairhurst worked as a secretary for Motown Records and for the law firm of Goodman, Eden, & Robb, before she was hired in 1968 as a secretary at the Ford Motor Company. Fairhurst remained at Ford for seventeen years, where she served as a marketing research analyst and was promoted to project manager. She left her position in 1986, and joined the Chrysler Corporation, retail dealer development program. After two years with Chrysler, Fairhurst was named president and general manager of the Cumberland Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1992, she sold her shares in the Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and purchased a Dodge dealership in Huntsville, Alabama. Fairhurst then purchased a Nissan Infiniti dealership in 1999 and became the first African American female in North America to own an Infiniti dealership. The same year, she became the first African American female owner of a Lexus dealership, which was located in Huntsville, Alabama.

03/11/2024

Our great Black Arts mother Val Gray Ward has joined the ancestors. Many years ago as a member of Dayton's Theatre West I looked to Chicago's Kuumba Workshop as an exemplary of Black Arts energy and in 1983/84 I was able to join them in Chicago. Val, from the Black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi always taught through art that the good will and creative thought we pass on to each other as we "clean-up, create and build" is our historical legacy.

10/24/2023

Catch The HistoryMakers at SXSW

Keynote Lisa Su joins SXSW 2024 along with second round of Featured Speakers: Dara Khosrowshahi, Jennette McCurdy, Chuck D.

10/15/2023

Last night the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company joined with Denver's Cleo Parker Robinson's company for a truly amazing show!

Join us for IN GOOD COMPANY on October 14th and 15th at the Victoria Theater as we open our 55th anniversary season and celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop. This outstanding weekend of performances features the return of the legendary choreographer Rennie Harris’ work Jacob’s Ladder. As the founder of the first and longest running hip hop company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Harris represents a flood of change. Archiving African American culture onstage, Harris’ hip hop choreography brings new language and fresh perspectives to the concert dance setting. Come see this phenomenal show and Sheri “Sparkle” Williams' return to the stage on October 14th and 15th!

02/20/2023

Missed our segment during last night's CBS 60 Minutes or wish to catch it again?

https://conta.cc/41d7WSf

Here's how to watch it anytime View as webpage ‌ Greetings! Missed Bill Whitaker's inside look at The HistoryMakers during last night's 60 Minutes or want to view it again? Watch Here ‌ "In society to

02/20/2023

We thank everyone who tuned in to the segment. If you are interested in learning more, subscribing to our Digital Archive, or further supporting this important work, check out our website:

The HistoryMakers is a national 501©(3) non-profit research and educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans. Through the media and a series of user-friendly products, services and events, Th...

02/20/2023

"In society today, what is being debated is who has value and who doesn't. You preserve what has value. You throw away that which doesn't. That's why the preservation is so important," says our Founder & President Julieanna Richardson. on now