Black initiatives are GitHub initiatives
Blacktocats is the first official GitHub Community of Belonging. Our mission is to attract and empower Black lives in tech. What began as a small group effort in 2015 has turned into a global initiative to amplify Black voices and talent in the tech community.
Blacktocats’ goals
Recruitment and community-building
Support GitHub’s efforts to attract Black talent and build an internal community that connects employees with Blacktocats initiatives.
Career development and retention
Promote Black leadership and development at all levels within GitHub.
Open source and education
Support the Black community’s participation in open source projects and coding.
“As an engineer, I followed and looked up to Blacktocats long before I joined GitHub. Their outreach efforts provide inspiration and #goals for developers who are navigating their careers and exposure to Black developers who are already succeeding. Now that I’m here, it’s also a crucial source of support (and fun) for me and so many others.
Implementation Engineer
Build space for Black community
Blacktocats provide platforms for Black Hubbers to celebrate and connect with the rest of their fellow GitHub community and, most importantly, with each other.
Git it together
We commissioned artist I AM SOTERIA to create and perform a spoken word piece all about the impact and legacy of the Blacktocats.
Starting the trend
Six new Communities of Belonging have formed since Blacktocats’ inception. We are proud to continuously provide support and guidance to others.
See all Communities of Belonging
Honoring our past
In February 2017, the first Black-coded Octocat was created to honor Benjamin Banneker, an African American almanac author, surveyor, and farmer in the 1700s.
View the Octodex
Influencing leadership
As the founding members of Blacktocats partnered with Social Impact on projects across the US, they received executive sponsorship from a GitHub VP.
Learn more about GitHub leadershipGive back and uplift voices
Blacktocats and allies have donated over $260,000 to Black nonprofits while collectively logging over 150 hours of volunteer work together.
“Blacktocats created an open space for me to share and support other people in my community throughout the workplace.
Mid Market Sales Representative
Foster Black talent
here and everywhere
In addition to professional development training for Blacktocats members internally, the group focuses on empowering Black developers across the world.
Hubber career development
Our Professional Development Committee supports the career advancement and retention of Blacktocat members by providing resources, like mentorships, panel discussions, and meet-ups with other GitHub teams to discuss navigation, networking, and more.
“The Blacktocats helped me foster connections within the greater GitHub community and made the transition as a new Hubber so much easier.
Enterprise Support Engineer
FLOSS and Code™ Hack Day in Atlanta, Georgia
FLOSS and Code is a scalable, reproducible hack day for underserved engineering communities all over the world. Our FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) and Code hack day in Atlanta focused on empowering Black engineers through open source. This event included GitHub employee-led workshops and provided space for open source maintainers to demonstrate how new contributors can participate in their projects.
participants
CodeNaija Hackathon
in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the fastest-growing open source communities (by projects) in the world. Over 100 developers attended our CodeNaija Hackathon. Participants across 19 teams devoted over 30 hacking hours to deliver technological solutions for social issues in the community, from a smart cam app that can detect disease in casaba melons to ReachAid, a platform that connects people in need with toys, clothing, and shoes.
Inspiring the ReadMe Project
For Black History Month in 2019, Blacktocats co-founder Leithia (GitHub Alum) proposed celebrating Black excellence by leveraging GitHub’s platform to amplify Black open source maintainers and influencers. The 2020 ReadMe Project continues this idea by publishing new profiles every month.
Read Black maintainer storiesCelebrating Black talent on GitHub
Check out a few of the incredible open source projects Black developers are maintaining every day.
Explore more Black developers
