Special Events

The HistoryMakers holds several fundraising events each year. These events are designed to expose The HistoryMakers to diverse audiences while raising much-needed funds and providing sponsors and attendees with entertaining high-level events. Sponsors are also provided with effective and efficient environments to promote and market their brands.

An Evening With …

An Evening With annual celebrity interview event is The HistoryMakers hallmark fundraising program. The intimate format of the interview, conducted before a live audience and video taped for airing on PBS-TV, explores the fascinating lives of some of America’s most beloved public figures.
Launched in 2000, the AEW… series includes: 

• An Evening With Harry Belafonte (Danny Glover interviewer) 2000;
• An Evening With Dionne Warwick (Diahann Carroll interviewer) 2001;
• An Evening With Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (Angela Davis interviewer) 2002;
• An Evening With B.B. King (Isaac Hayes interviewer) 2003;
• An Evening With Della Reese (Lorraine Toussaint interviewer) 2004; 
• An Evening With Russell Simmons (Cathy Hughes interviewer) 2004;
• An Evening With Diahann Carroll (Gwen Ifill interviewer) 2005;
• An Evening With Nikki Giovanni (Pearl Cleage interviewer) 2005;
• An Evening With Denyce Graves (Angela Bassett interviewer) 2005;
• An Evening With Colin Powell (Juan Williams interviewer) 2006;
• An Evening With Andrew Young (Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviewer) 2006;
• An Evening With Earl Graves (Julian Bond interviewer), 2006;
• An Evening With Quincy Jones (Gwen Ifill interviewer), 2007

The annual An Evening With… event is held in the fall in Chicago, Illinois. In 2004, An Evening With… debuted in Atlanta, Georgia and in 2005, An Evening With… debuted in Washington, D.C.  All the proceeds from the hallmark event go entirely to support The HistoryMakers educational and archival endeavors.

Salute to the HistoryMakers

With Salute to the HistoryMakers, selected HistoryMakers are feted in a special ceremony featuring food, music and entertainment. Each honored HistoryMaker is presented with a bronze thirteen-inch high award developed by nationally known African American sculptor Preston Jackson. In 2004, the Hilton Hotels hosted Salutes to the HistoryMakers in the following cities: Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.  McDonald’s Corporation served as the co-presenting sponsor.

Public Programs

The HistoryMakers exposes its audiences to the lives and careers of its HistoryMakers through innovative public programming presented at no charge.  Always well attended, with audiences of 150 to 1000, these programs educate, entertain and inform. 

The HistoryMakers Public Programs

2007

• A Conversation With Roland Martin
• Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., An American Life Story
• A Conversation to Honor African-American Leaders in the Insurance Industry

2006

• Write On: The Art of the Written Word
• Celebrate Chuck Smith
• Celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2005

• Movement in Motion

2004

• Sounds of Experience

2003

• Showtime! Black Theater in Chicago

2002

• WVON: The Good Ol' Days of 60s Radio

2001

• Three Artists, Three Lives, Three Stories

2000

• An Evening With Jeni LeGon