US Black Heritage Project Year in Review 2020-2021

Question

I love to look back and see how far I've come when working on any kind of project. The US Black Heritage Project has made some amazing strides since June 2020 and I wanted to celebrate them with you.

• We updated our name to US Black Heritage Project to better reflect the community we serve and the work we do.
• We updated our project home page to make it easier to use.
• We updated the image on our African-American sticker and began using it on all profiles for Black Americans. We had less than 100 when we started counting. We now have 35,294 profiles with stickers! This sticker helps us track and improve profiles as well as do better genealogy.
• A year ago we managed zero profiles. We now manage 1409 Black notables which receive regular care and attention. We have cleaned up and improved many existing notable profiles.
• We now have a project badge with 62 badged members.
• We added 2 Project Coordinators, 2 Team Leaders, and 1 co-leader. (a huge thank you to their hard work!)
• We added a Google discussion group and Discord channel for project members.
• We centralized all the Free Space Pages and help pages.
• We launched the Heritage Exchange Program in April with the goal of creating the largest database in existence of connected enslaved ancestors. We now have 5710 categorized slave profiles.
• In February we started the USBH Connecting Challenge with the goal of creating 50,000 new Black profiles in 2021. We have created 21718 so far! The more profiles we add, the more connections we can make.
• We created naming standards for enslaved ancestors.
• We discussed and agreed on Preferred Terminology for use by the project on profiles and pages.
• We started a Connectors post in g2g each month in order to connect more of our notables to the Tree. We have kept up a consistent connection rate in 2021.
• We updated, improved, and expanded the USA slavery categories in coordination with the Categorization Project. 
• We expanded our teams from 3 to 17.
• Our Community Liaison began working to build bridges with the Black community outside WikiTree to bring more members to build their trees.
• Our members worked on Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr's tree during the WikiTree Challenge. How cool was that?!
• We began collaborating/coordinating with other projects.
• We started the USBH PATH, an onboarding program for all new project members.
• We began collaborating with photographer Drew Gardner to identify descendants of Black Civil War soldiers for his next Smithsonian photography exhibit. How cool is that?!

Going forward we plan to do more of all of the above--creating more profiles and connections, adding more notables. We will also expand our categories and stickers. We appreciate all the help from WikiTree members helping us to grow. The work is really paying off. 

Want to join us? Head on over to our current g2g post. We'd love to have you!

Answer 1

Outstanding teamwork! Way to go team.

Comments

You have been a huge part of the progress! Thank you so much for everything you do.

---

Amazing progress! Thank you, Emma, for your leadership, and thank you, Denise, and to all your co-leaders, coordinators, and contributors.

What a source of pride for WikiTree.

Answer 2

Congratulations Emma and all Black Heritage Project members on all your hard work and excellent progress. Really brilliant!

Answer 3

Emma,  Thanks for your leadership and vision on this very important part of WikiTree!  Great update, and great to see the progress made so far!  And I know there is much more to come!  More profiles, more connections, more people finding ancestors!

Comments

"More profiles, more connections, more people finding ancestors!"

Love this! 

Thank you for your participation in creating new profiles!

Answer 4

Great summary, thank you! And unending thanks for your leadership, you help us all move forward!!

Comments

Thank you for all your help with Heritage Exchange!

Answer 5

What an accomplishment! I joined in May and have learned so much from you and the team. Thank you so much for your leadership and patience with this newbie! 

Comments

Thank you for all of your hard work, Gina. I've been seeing a lot of your profiles lately 

Answer 6

Awesome work, Emma, and all of our team!  I am so proud to be a part of this group.  It is so satisfying to research these people, connect them to their family, and bring their stories to life.

I swear, Emma, I don't know how you do all that you do.  You are an inspiration!

Comments

I don't know how you do all you do! LOL

Answer 7

Great list of accomplishments, Emma!  I have really enjoyed my time working on the project profiles.

Comments

Thank you for your contributions, Karen!

Answer 8

What an accomplishment for an amazing team! Congrats Emma, your vision is manifesting 

Answer 9

This is amazing, Emma and the rest of the USBH Project members!! Congratulations on all the hard work and progress!

Answer 10

Congrats and thank you for all of this work, USBH!

Comments

Thank you for your many contributions and helping us get those categories sorted out! We still have a few more to go, but we've got the bulk cleaned up. Yay!

Answer 11

Congratulations to Emma and the members of the U.S. Black Heritage Project for all you've accomplished the past year. Your hard work has really paid off, and is an inspiration!

Answer 12

Really impressive progress. Kudos to your team.

Answer 13

What an amazing year!  Thank you for this wonderful update and for your inspiring leadership, Emma!  Fabulous work, USBH team!

Answer 14

Congratulations, Emma! I can't tell you how proud I am to be part of this incredible team. It's some of the most rewarding work I've ever done.

Answer 15

Maybe now with such great teamwork we can begin to solve some of the mysteries in our family trees. Congrats to all who contributed.