Introducing For the Record: A Black Oral History Archive

Today, Capital B is launching its biggest project ever.

For the Record: A Black Oral History Archive is a collection of over 100 firsthand stories from Black Americans across regions, generations, and identities. Since last year, our reporters and partners have been gathering recollections from Black people that paint a vivid picture of resistance, resilience, invention, and celebration. These stories now live in a growing library at ForTheRecordArchive.org. 

There is more to say about the mix of urgent, gripping, surprising and joyful stories you’ll find in the archive. But as the country prepares this week to mark the 250th year of its founding, it’s worth telling the story of the project itself, and why we believed this was the moment to build it.

Capital B launched in 2022, at a time when the national conversation around race made a sharp turn from public reckoning and reflection to fights over how race and identity should be taught in schools — if at all. The questions looming over this rapid societal shift were big ones: Who gets to shape America’s story? Which stories become part of the historical record as a result? And which stories get left out? 

From our earliest days, we were reporting on these developments — the book bans, the attacks on DEI initiatives, and the growing debates in public forums and online about how Black history should be taught. As Black journalists, we could not ignore efforts to sanitize the legacy of racism in this country, and diminish the role Black people played in America’s story. 

So we made a plan to do what the Black press has always done: document the truth. We started with an idea to put younger generations in conversation with Black elders — people who remembered attending segregated schools, whose families marched during the Civil Rights Movement, and who had watched defining chapters of modern American history unfold with their own eyes. Their memories would be the firsthand accounts of the history that was increasingly being challenged. 

But then, the stakes grew. Affirmative action effectively came to an end. Abortion became effectively illegal in many states across the South, where large numbers of Black people live. The last presidential election was followed by swift actions to sanitize the truth of American racism, overt efforts to diminish the accomplishments of Black people, and a rapid dismantling of civil rights protections.

The push to bury the ugly parts of America’s story is real. But the stories of Black ingenuity, courage, artistry, and accomplishment are also at risk. And now younger generations are living through a new reality — one where they enjoy fewer rights than the generation before. 

So For the Record became an attempt to preserve it all. You’ll read stories from activists recalling their first encounters with the KKK in the 1960s, and from elders who remember integrating public schools and universities. You’ll also hear from a shoemaker in Gary on the craft that sustains his livelihood in a changing Black town, from a young artist in New Orleans trying to make a life in a place that’s constantly shifting, and from a 20-something Miami native reflecting on the side of his hometown that tourists never see. 

The launch of For the Record is only the beginning of this project. There are over a hundred stories in the archive so far, and we intend for it to keep growing. We’re carrying forward a tradition we’ve practiced for generations: preserving our stories by sharing them with one another — and you don’t need to be a public figure to contribute. We hope you’ll add your own voice and help build a record of Black life that can endure for the next 250 years. 

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