How an Obits Project on Overlooked Women Was Born

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Yet she died alone in 1964, having withdrawn from the limelight.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.

People were coming out of the shadows to share personal tales of injustice and discrimination, of disparaging and belittling encounters that made them question their sense of belonging in the world. Their hope was that by sharing their stories they could start dialogues and inspire change.

I could identify; I knew what it was like to sometimes feel like an outsider. And as an editor at The Times, I wondered what I could do to advance the conversation.

An answer came as I was researching an obit for a woman in the tennis world. I discovered the story of Mary Ewing Outerbridge when I stumbled upon a website crediting her with introducing tennis to America. I wondered if she had received a Times obituary when she died in 1886. I checked our digital newspaper archives. She had not.

After that, anytime I came across an interesting person who died years ago, I searched our archives for an obit. Those who didn’t get one were, not surprisingly, largely women and people of color. I started talking about my research with colleagues, friends and relatives, all of whom began sending me more names.

I soon had a list of dozens of fascinating people, such as Ms. Larsen; Madhubala, a Bollywood actress whose poetically tragic life was cut short; and Margaret Abbott, a golfer who died without ever knowing that she was the first American woman to win an Olympic championship.

Even more surprising were some blatant omissions of those who had achieved a measure of fame in their lifetime, like the poet Sylvia Plath, the writer Charlotte Brontë and the photographer Diane Arbus.

Why didn’t they get obits? I can only speculate. Perhaps the mark they made on the world wasn’t recognized until decades after their deaths. Or maybe some of them faded into obscurity, their achievements forgotten. It could be that The Times didn’t learn about their deaths until it was too late. Or that the omission was more purposeful, a judgment call of an editor who didn’t deem the death newsworthy.

Regardless, I now had an opportunity to give these women their due.

In November 2017, I met Jessica Bennett, The Times’s first gender editor. She agreed that Overlooked was a compelling way to add to the record, and we decided to partner up.

What followed was a whirlwind of excitement in the newsroom, with writers, editors, international correspondents, page designers, photo editors — whether they were women, men, people of color or not — asking us how they could contribute. Dozens of people have played a meaningful role in making it come together.

Because many of the subjects we wrote about died long ago, we decided to diverge from the traditional obituary style of announcing a person’s death at the start of the article. Instead, we encouraged writers to be creative with their storytelling.

This series is just the beginning. I’m hopeful it will inspire many more conversations inside the newsroom and beyond about diversity and what we can do to make sure no one is overlooked.

If you would like to suggest someone who has been overlooked, please fill out this form.