UW Professor Emeritus Quintard Taylor, founder of BlackPast.org, an online encyclopedia dedicated to Black history, died Sept. 21. He also served as the first Black president of the Western History Association in 2011. Taylor is remembered as a beloved professor, a dedicated scholar, and an energetic historian dedicated to education on Black history.
A pioneer in his field
Taylor was dedicated to studying Black people in the West — a field that often went unresearched, especially at the beginning of his research in the mid 1970s. Taylor’s work helped correct the narrative that the history of Black people in the West is insignificant, according to his close friend and collaborator, Albert Broussard.
When he and Taylor first started researching Black Americans in the West, many did not see the value in their work, Broussard said. They both maintained the importance of studying the region, and their books on Seattle and San Francisco (respectively) still serve as a model for studying Black communities in Western cities, which has become especially important in the midst of gentrification.
Perhaps most notable of Taylor’s works to the Seattle community is “The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era,” which was first published in 1994 and explores Black history through the Central District.
“He wrote for everyone — other scholars, students, and for the general public — and always aimed to remind readers that Blacks were everywhere in U.S. history, not just the South,” the UW History Department wrote.
His 1988 “In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990,” was the book that secured Taylor’s place as the leading expert on African Americans in the West, according to Broussard.
Broussard added that he and Taylor were educated at the beginning of a larger effort for universities to adopt Black history courses. He recalled being a freshman at Stanford University where there weren’t any Black history courses offered until his sophomore year in 1970.
“We were among the earliest cohort of Black students coming out of graduate programs with Ph.D.s specializing in Black history, and it was a very small circle,” Broussard said.
Founder of BlackPast.org
Advertisement
Taylor was the creative behind and founder of BlackPast.org, a free website that provides users with accurate information about African American and Global African history.
BlackPast.org officially launched in 2007, although Taylor, his graduate student, and other contributors had been working on it since 2004. Executive director of BlackPast.org, LaNesha DeBardelaben, pointed out it was founded before Barack Obama was elected the first Black president of the U.S. in 2008 or the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016.
“[Taylor’s] work was really preceding some transformational moments in history,” DeBardelaben said. “The presence of the website provided a sense of inspiration and information, and that is what it has always been committed to.”
What started as information about Black history on the faculty website grew to an independent website that has since been utilized by over 64 million users and includes over 7,000 entries.
“Black history is interwoven into the American story,” Taylor wrote in an April 2025 article for BlackPast.org. “It is this story of courage, struggle, adversity, and achievement, often in the face of overwhelming odds, that is at the core of contemporary American identity. It is impossible today to tell the American story without including the Black American story.”
BlackPast.org includes accessible and reliable information such as biographies, maps, and timelines in addition to important primary sources.
“We are telling stories that inspire courage, that inspire a commitment to justice and to equity,” DeBardelaben said. “This website is really essential to all of us becoming our best selves, our most courageous selves.”
DeBardelaben said Taylor worked on BlackPast.org at night in addition to teaching at UW during the day.
“The perfect professor”
Taylor started at UW as Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History — a prestigious title. He taught until 2018 and was a dedicated mentor to history and non-history students alike.
Advertisement
“If you could imagine the perfect professor, one whose class you couldn’t wait to get to and was so personable and so relatable and so committed to your growth as a student and as a person, that was [Quintard Taylor],” DeBardelaben said.
Broussard said Taylor’s legacy will live on in the mentorship and guidance he provided students and young scholars in the field.
“Everytime his name is spoken, his legacy is alive,” DeBardelaben said.
Besides being a devoted scholar and teacher with a commanding presence, Broussard remembered Taylor as a lively and energetic person who was passionate about his work. The type of person who loved to talk and tell stories; Broussard recalled conversations on the phone with Taylor that would last for hours.
“He was also just a fun person. He had a great sense of humour. He was a great laugh,” Broussard said.
Reach Transportation beat writer Mary Andolina at archive@dailyuw.com. X: @mary_andolina. Bluesky: @maryandolina.bsky.social.
Like what you’re reading? Support high-quality student journalism by donating here.
