About

Mission

Bakari Historical Services, LLC (BHS) offers early African American presentations, training, and consulting services that promote education, awareness, and humanity for organizations, educational institutions, businesses, and the communities they serve.

Hi, I’m Harvey Bakari, a husband, father, and descendant of enslaved great-grandparents. I founded Bakari Historical Services (BHS) after witnessing firsthand how the dynamic presentation of history can transform and broaden people’s perceptions of the past and present. My goal is to deliver creative, original, and thought-provoking early African American history and culture presentation experiences or services that encourage audience questions, interactions, or participation. I believe the often-forgotten legacies of early African American history and the American Revolution can help answer simple and complex questions and issues that have mystified people in search of answers.

 So, how did I experience the transformative power of dynamic history? During my professional career with the nation’s largest living history museum, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, I learned how to use original documents, research, archeology, objects, and other resources to develop engaging African American history interpretations, presentations, and programs for millions of people for 23 years.

My museum knowledge, skills, and experiences were gained through direct engagement with diverse audiences. Here are a few observations: People may be aware or unaware that African American history and culture have an impact on their lives, but some are unsure of how or where to begin looking for answers. When people have curiosity about their origins, history typically comes into play. It usually starts with a series of simple questions like "Who, when, and why?" They frequently ask questions about stereotypes and myths. They want to know where to begin and who to believe because there is so much conflicting and misleading information in popular culture and on the Internet. The trust of some educational organizations has been eroded or questioned because of their institutional legacy of exclusion. BHS is an independent small business with the experience and skills to meet the needs of your organization and the communities it serves.

Harvey Bakari 

BHS symbol of a figure pulling up another figure climbing to the top of a stack of books.
BHS founder Harvey Bakari standing in gold mine in Ghana West Africa

My History and Legacies

Standing in a gold mine in Ghana, I was the first in my family to travel to West Africa and visit the dungeons of Elmina Castle, where African captives were held before being forcibly transported on slave ships across the Atlantic. By the 1800s, some of their American-born descendants were also carried hundreds of miles by ship or overland to Southern slave markets. Among the estimated one million enslaved people who were forcibly transported was my great-grandfather, who was sold and separated from his family in Virginia before being resold as a child in Louisiana.

He passed down stories about West African trickster characters and Southern folklore to my father, who fought in the US Army during the Korean War, when the military was desegregating but the civilian sector was still segregated. He was part of a 248-year legacy of African American soldiers who fought for the nation since the American Revolutionary War. This is one example of how history can involve more than just facts and dates. By asking questions about origins, history can take audiences on a journey of unexpected discoveries.

Sankofa symbol of looking to the past

Experience, knowledge, and skill.

Learn how Harvey Bakari's decades of experience, expertise, and talents may benefit your organization.

Harvey Bakari is a public historian, public speaker, consultant, and visual artist. He is the founder of Bakari Historical Services LLC (BHS) and has worked at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for 23 years (1994–2017).

He held frontline and management positions at the history museum, which is renowned as a pioneer in the research, interpretation, and presentation of early African American history. Harvey Bakari earned a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a minor in Afro-American Studies.

  • How valuable is a public speaker who has interacted with a wide range of audiences? Harvey Bakari began his history museum career at Colonial Williamsburg (1994–2017) by engaging with live audiences. He began as a frontline history interpreter (guide), then moved on to other managerial positions such as program developer, researcher, trainer, and manager of African American History Interpretation and Initiatives. In addition to managing historic building operations and logistics, he hired, trained, and supervised ethnically diverse workers, volunteers, and interns.

  • Your organization may require the consultation or collaboration of someone with museum leadership expertise on projects or initiatives. Harvey Bakari completed the American Association of State and Local History's (AASLH) History Leadership Institute, formerly known as the Seminar for Historic Administration, in 2001. He led museum initiatives independently, cooperatively, and through team leadership. He has spoken at museum conferences and symposia both at home and abroad, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) 2014 Atlantic Slave Trade Conference. He serves as the president of the Society of Friends of African American History (SOFAAH) and is involved with various museum organizations and associations.

  • You may have seen Harvey Bakari on live national television exhibiting his educational and improvisational talents as he responded to real-time questions from middle school kids in social studies classrooms around the country (2000–2016). Harvey Bakari has been the on-air African American history subject matter expert for Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Field Trip series for almost a decade. Several accolades were bestowed upon the public television broadcast series, including an Emmy for Freedom Bound.

  • Collaboration, whether domestically or internationally, is often required to achieve an organization's objectives. Harvey Bakari took part in the International Partnership Among Museums Program (IPAM) in order to investigate collaboration projects with Senegalese museums, communities, and archeological sites. From 1999 to 2001, the Historic Museum of Gorée and the University of Dakar collaborated with Colonial Williamsburg. The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the United States State Department supported IPAM. Bakari previously visited Atlantic Slave Trade remembrance sites at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle in Ghana, as well as the House of Slavery on Gorée Island in Senegal.

  • Harvey Bakari delivered multi-media African American history presentations in a museum auditorium in the third person. He answered questions from the audience ranging from the Atlantic Slave Trade, hereditary chattel slavery, the American Revolution, and its parallels to the modern age.

  • The Equiano Forum on Early African American History and Culture was organized, administered, and presented by Harvey Bakari. Guest speakers included, Douglas Wilder, former Virginia Governor and the first elected African American Governor in the United States; Orlando Patterson, historical and cultural sociologist at Harvard University and author of Slavery and Social Death; Douglas Blackman, journalist and author of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the End of the Civil War to World War II; A'Lelia Bundles, author, journalist, and activist; and many other scholars, authors, and performers.

  • For 11 years, Harvey Bakari worked as a historic actor on a museum stage. He played Old Paris, an African who related his experiences of culture, captivity, the Middle Passage, and bondage in Virginia. Harvey Bakari wrote, produced, and directed an ensemble of adult and youth performers in Remember Me, When Freedom Comes, based on historical and archeological research.

  • For audiences, first-person historical interpretation delivers an immersive experience. Moses, a Black Baptist preacher, was researched and performed by Harvey Bakari. By preaching without a license, both Black and White dissenting preachers challenged the authority of the Church of England. The actions of colonial authorities show that Moses' version of the gospel posed a threat. As a result, Moses was lashed and imprisoned three times for preaching.

  • In historic building tours, walking history tours, military reenactments, and other historical programs, third person interpretation is widely used. Harvey Bakari oversaw a military reenactment of the nearly all-Black First Rhode Island Regiment. It was made up of free Black men and slaves whose freedom had been bought by the state in exchange for their service in the war. Prior to their arrival at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, where the British surrendered to General Washington's Continental Army, the regiment was integrated.