by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
September 24, 2025
Taylor spent his lifetime selling and archiving the Black expertise.
Dr. Quintard Taylor, a famend historian specializing in African American historical past, has handed away on the age of 76.
Taylor was a number one voice within the documentation and promotion of Black historical past. The educator additionally based BlackPast.org, a platform deemed the “world’s largest on-line encyclopedia” for the topic.
Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, Taylor spent his lifetime in academia, writing novels that centered on the Black American expertise. The seasoned professor wrote a number of acclaimed works, together with the Pulitzer Prize-nominated “Seek for the Racial Frontier: African People within the American West, 1528–1990” and “The Forging of a Black Neighborhood: A Historical past of Seattle’s Central District, 1870 by means of the Civil Rights Period.”
In 2007, Taylor launched BlackPast.org as a method for these throughout the diaspora to study extra precisely and freely about Black historical past. It has educated over 64 million customers, whereas offering them with the information and sources surrounding this various group. All through his profession, he has additionally earned a number of honors, together with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild and the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award from the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation and the Affiliation for the Research of African American Life and Historical past.
Present management at BlackPast shared statements on the passing of its founder. They emphasised his empowering imaginative and prescient and management that created this groundbreaking platform for Black individuals.
“His work will stay on within the minds of those that have realized from him and can proceed to mild the way in which for individuals who search a greater understanding of the world,” mentioned Douglas Bender, board president of BlackPast, in a press launch. “Personally, I’m endlessly grateful that he was my brother and my buddy…and allowed me the unbelievable alternative to share within the work that lifted his imaginative and prescient. It has been a pleasure…and it isn’t performed.”
Remembering his life and legacy stands as essential as ever, particularly at a time when African American historical past stays beneath menace of erasure. His successors additionally hope to make sure the promotion and longevity of BlackPast, highlighting the very important significance of this work to the establishments and communities that honor these information.
“His influence and legacy are immeasurable,” added Dr. Quin’Nita Cobbins-Modica, Taylor’s mentee and vice chairman of BlackPast.org. “I, together with everybody at BP, am dedicated to honoring this sacred belief of carrying ahead Dr. Taylor’s imaginative and prescient to make sure that Black historical past stays accessible for generations to return.”
Taylor died peacefully at his residence in Houston, Texas. Formal bulletins concerning a memorial service will likely be launched at a later date.
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