Site reveals lives of everyday African Americans
HANOVER, N.H. — A few years back, Matthew Delmont felt his teaching about African-American history had gotten a little stale, so he starting casting around for a fresh way to bring it to life.
The Dartmouth College professor initially turned to Twitter to share stories about the everyday lives of African Americans that he read about in black newspapers. That project expanded in November to become the website Black Quotidian, which features profiles of hundreds of African-Americans taken from black newspapers mostly between the 1900s and the 1980s. It also contains scanned articles from about a dozen papers such as the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier along with audio recordings, photos and videos.
“l felt like my students were coming away from the class only thinking African-American history was about these civil right marches or about martyrs,” Delmont said. “I felt like they spent so much time thinking about black death that they were losing sight of the broader complexity, really the beautiful aspects of African-American history.”
And while there are mentions of icons such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, Delmont keeps the focus on the lesser known figures.
Among them are Juanita Blocker, the first black member of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association who also had a bowling column in the Los
Angeles Sentinel for 20 years. There is also Welford Wilson II, the New York City Junior High School’s oratory champion in May 1929 and one on Claudette Colvin, who as a 15-year-old refused to give up her seat on a bus — nine months before Parks did the same.
“These iconic figures are important, but we need to understand the everyday people doing important things in their community,” Delmont said.
Gretchen Morris, a retired teacher from Los Angeles, discovered the site while researching her grandparents, Welford and Blanche Wilson. An article about her uncle, Welford Wilson II, the oratory champion, provided additional details about them, including their schooling.
“There are so many people who are inspiring, could inspire,” Morris said. “It helps to lift or upgrade the self-esteem of African-Africans when they find out the different things that other African-Americans did.”