The allegedly ‘non-partisan, non-profit’ HistoryMakers glorifies Louis Farrakhan and ignores Clarence Thomas
The 30-year-old suspect in the slaying of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., was, until the middle of 2024, an employee of a left-wing nonprofit underwritten by some of the country’s largest philanthropic foundations that claims to be devoted to chronicling the lives of “historically significant Black Americans.”
Elias Rodriguez, an anti-Israel radical and longtime left-wing activist, was arrested on Wednesday evening at Washington, D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum shortly after shouting “Free Palestine!” and “I did it for Gaza!” Moments earlier, Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down at close range, witnesses told police.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rodriguez worked as an oral history researcher from March 2023 to July 2024 at The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit that claims to be “committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans.” His biography was removed from the organization’s website Thursday morning.
The HistoryMakers’s website warns that the “achievements of historically significant Black Americans are at risk of going unpreserved, as important figures die without documenting their stories for future generations.”
Though touted in a 60 Minutes profile as a “non-partisan, non-profit organization,” the group’s work suggests a left-wing political bent. Its digital archive of “first person video oral testimony,” for example, includes a number of left-wing heroes but ignores America’s most famous black conservatives. Clarence Thomas, the second black Supreme Court justice, is omitted, but Anita Hill, who accused him of sexual harassment, is included. The renowned economist Thomas Sowell is omitted, but Al Sharpton is present. Its biography of Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan omits any mention of his long history of anti-Semitism, noting instead that he’s “at times a controversial figure” who pushes a “message of a unified community.”
The organization’s praise for noxious figures like Farrakhan hasn’t proved an impediment to its ability to raise money. The Historymakers is underwritten by left-wing philanthropies, including the Ford Foundation, which has provided at least $1 million to the nonprofit since 2024, $500,000 of which was awarded in March. The MacArthur Foundation has also provided the group nearly $1 million since 2003, including $500,000 last year. A partnership with PBS resulted in several hours of programming aired on the publicly funded network.
Rodriguez’s far-left activism began before he joined The HistoryMakers, and he appears to have started an X account pushing radical anti-Israel views while working for the group.
The account, “kyotoleather,” shared a manifesto allegedly signed by Rodriguez soon before Wednesday evening’s shooting, touting “armed action” against the “perpetrators” of “genocide” as “highly legibile [sic]” and “the only sane thing to do.” The account, which has posts dating back to Oct. 21, 2023, shared videos on X of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a post that said “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Hamas.” It also includes posts such as “Death To Israel” and “De@th 2 Amerikka.”
Rodriguez was also a member of the Chicago chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which regularly organizes anti-Israel protests and collaborates with anti-Israel student groups, including at Columbia University, though the PSL claims Rodriguez hasn’t been involved in over seven years.
PSL’s newspaper, Liberation, identified him as a member of the party while reporting on a speech he gave during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2017. “The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its Black residents,” Rodriguez said, according to the post, which was deleted Thursday morning. “[Amazon’s] whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city.”
Rodriguez currently works for the American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA) as a “profiles administrative specialist,” according to his LinkedIn.
The group released a joint statement with the American Osteopathic Association following the shooting.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime. Both the AOIA and AOA stand ready to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can,” wrote the AOA president Teresa Hubka and CEO Kathleen Creason. “In this time of grief, we extend our deepest sympathy to the victims’ loved ones and all others impacted by this act of violence.”
The HistoryMakers did not respond to a request for comment.
