Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

Themes

Visitors are encouraged to explore Black Quotidian in a number of different ways. I recommend starting by browsing one of the thematic paths listed below. You can also start with a specific month (click on the month to view the details of the daily posts: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, or December). Clicking on the looking glass icon in the toolbar at the top of the page will allow you to search for specific people, places, events, or dates (try, for example, searching for your birthday). Or, you can start with a specific random date: July 30, 1955; January 31, 1942; October 30, 1915; December 7, 1958. Once you have selected a post, you will find a navigation button on the bottom of the page that will take you to the next page. To go back, you can either click on the compass icon in the toolbar to find recently viewed pages, or use the back button on your browser. To return to the Themes section, select the Table of Contents icon in the top left of the toolbar on the top of the page. 

My goal is that the site will appeal to three types of visitors: (1) skimmers, who browse a handful of posts or sources; (2) swimmers, who delve more deeply into particular essays and paths; and (3) divers, who spend significant time exploring the site and engaging with the project’s methodological questions. Black Quotidian takes the affordances of being a born-digital Scalar project seriously. Rather than encouraging visitors to read cover to cover, as though it were a book, the project is designed to immerse visitors and lure them deeper and deeper into the material. Whether visitors spend fifteen minutes or fifteen weeks with Black Quotidian, I want them to come away knowing more about African-American history and newspapers.

Starting exploring Black Quotidian by selecting one of these thematic paths:

This page has paths:

Contents of this path: