The idea for this project began in 2020 as a collaboration between Salisbury School history teacher Rhonan Mokriski and Marvelwood School Film Studies teacher Ben Willis. The two worked within the limitations of the Covid-19 lockdown to guide students in the creation of a series of short documentaries exploring undertold African American history in our region. For the next school year they expanded the project by inviting more schools to participate, and were supported by Troutbeck, which offered to host a multi-day symposium showcasing the students’ work. Numerous other local organizations joined to help support the students’ projects in their communities.

The philosophy employs a decentralized approach, created and led by educators and students. This means that multiple schools support, contribute, and collaborate with each other across disciplines with the goal of generating meaningful and authentic projects that endeavor to educate the community.

These projects are about acknowledging the idea that history is "messy," encouraging students to be detectives, pull threads and rethink stories and accepted statements through a critical lens.