How an Obits Project on Overlooked Women Was Born (original) (raw)

Times Insider|How an Obits Project on Overlooked Women Was Born

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/overlooked-obituary.html

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Nella Larsen, born Nellie Walker, was the first African American woman to be admitted to the library school of the New York Public Library. She was successful as an author and later worked in hospitals.Credit...Carl Van Vechten and Van Vechten Trust.

March 8, 2018

Nella Larsen was a literary star during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ’30s. Her dramatic novels about black middle-class families and the debilitating pressures of race inspired meaningful conversations.

Yet she died alone in 1964, having withdrawn from the limelight. Her body was found days later in her apartment, and there was little news coverage of her death.

Despite her success, Ms. Larsen did not get an obituary in The New York Times.

It is difficult for me as a journalist to see important stories go untold. But perhaps more important, as a woman of color, I am pained when the powerful stories of incredible women and minorities are not brought to light.

Such lost tales are the concept behind Overlooked, a history project recalling the lives of those who, for whatever reason, were left out of The Times’s obit pages.

I started developing the idea for the series shortly after joining the obituaries desk as the digital editor in early 2017.

At the time, a national debate on race was at a rolling boil and a renewed discussion on gender equality was beginning to take hold.

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