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The NY Times has a new section on "overlooked" people whose lives and deaths were never covered in their obituaries section, which has primarily told the stories of white men.

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Obituary writing is more about life than death: the last word, a testament to a human contribution.

Yet who gets remembered - and how - inherently involves judgment. To look back at the obituary archives can, therefore, be a stark lesson in how society valued various achievements and achievers.

Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries: of heads of state, opera singers, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing and the namer of the Slinky. The vast majority chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones.

Charlotte Brontë wrote "Jane Eyre"; Emily Warren Roebling oversaw construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband fell ill; Madhubala transfixed Bollywood; Ida B. Wells campaigned against lynching. Yet all of their deaths went unremarked in our pages, until now.

Below you'll find obituaries for these and others who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked. We'll be adding to this collection each week, as Overlooked becomes a regular feature in the obituaries section, and expanding our lens beyond women.
You can use this form to nominate candidates for future "Overlooked" obits. Read an essay from our obituaries editor about how he approaches subjects and learn more about how the project came to be.

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Remarkable People We Overlooked in Our Obituaries

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Obituary writing is more about life than death: the last word, a testament to a human contribution. Yet who gets remembered - and how - inherently involves judgment. To look back at the obituary archives can, therefore, be a stark lesson in how society valued various achievements and achievers.

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This is an activity that is a focus on including LGBTQ and people of color and their contributions to the Second Industrial Revolution, not just white people. The students were fascinated by some of the people they had never heard about and how their inventions still impact society.

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Institutionalized Racism
To understand how racism a system.
Students identify the meaning of institutionalized Racism and research different laws developed in America that have deprived African American Civil Rights.  

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Institutionalized Racism
To understand how racism a system.
Students identify the meaning of institutionalized Racism and research different laws developed in America that have deprived African American Civil Rights.  

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Students read excerpts from the book, The Battle of Adwa, and prepare to engage in questioning and discussion of socratic debate regarding African resistance during era of Imperialism

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Comparing the biographies of these two great Civil Rights Leaders and how their different upbringing may have shaped their Civil Rights philosophies. Use KWL to begin and end with a Venn Diagram comparing the two men.

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Students do some research on a group that has sought civil rights but the culmination is a poster they create using a template of a faceless/hoodied figure (or they can create any faceless figure) and on the figure they attach how that group feels that they are seen by dominant culture.
Kelly Czajka

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First, students analyze the role of specific laws, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and social movements in either advancing or hindering civil rights since the 1950s. U.S. Supreme Court cases students could analyze and use as evidence include: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Brown v. Board of Education (I) (1954), Sweatt v. Painter (1950), Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964), Shaw v. Reno (1993), Craig v. Boren (1976), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and Roe v. Wade (1973). Congressional actions that students could analyze and use include The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Social movements students will analyze include the African American Civil Rights Movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King (this analysis will include excerpts from “Letter from Birmingham Jail”) and the National Organization for Women. After explaining the role of Congressional actions, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and social movements in advancing civil rights since the 1950s, students are divided into groups, and each group is assigned to argue on behalf of either Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, or social movements as being the most influential driver of civil rights change

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Bought copies of "The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories" and "Crossing the Danger Water" - excited to use these in class.

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Students rewrote the superficial textbook coverage rethinking 'who is Marcus Garvey' after reading 4 primary source documents with varied points of view (Malcolm X, members of the NAACP, Hoover, and Garvey himself)

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I'm working very hard to educate myself about Black history because my knowledge is limited. Please recommend any books. I'm always looking for new information.

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In small groups, students research and present information about various current civil rights issues.  They prepare discussion questions with which they can lead a class discussion about the issues.  Some issues to be discussed:

o   Police brutality/Black Lives Matter

o   Income inequality for women

o   Undocumented worker exploitation

o   Native American poverty/lack of healthcare/education

o   Violence against LGBTQ

o   National security profiling of Muslim-Americans

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Students make a monologue and choose from a variety options to present (skits, debates, visual art, kids books, etc. . .) and "Harlem Pen Pals" (write letters to each other in-role).

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Ways of viewing/considering  the African diaspora.

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Viewing documentary about Willis Ward, Gerald Ford and race at UM in the 1930s

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Comparison of civil rights in our country today and shortly after Civil War

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Daily Biographies with connections  to current events. Emphasis on less familiar names and accomplishments.

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featuring Skyline  students and new BOE trustee Bryan Johnson.

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Investigating how the US was seen as a place of freedom for some but was not a place of freedom for others

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We analyze Brown and Plessy as examples of judicial activism and judicial restraint

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School-wide assembly featuring DJ Rodney Paige.

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Toussaint Louverture. Race and systems of oppression in the Caribbean.

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Comparison CER's on Oppression in S. Africa and United States

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We looked at psychology through the lens of various psychologists and how they may have, or may not have taken into account the impact of race in the human experience.

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African, African-American, Britains of African descent, (etc.) in WW1.

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Imperialism & the Social Construction of Race

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Imperialism & the Social Construction of Race

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In my WHAG class we studied the social construction of race as a tool of British Imperialism in the novel "The Four Feathers"  about the war in the Sudan in the 1870's.
This occurred in the context of the unit in Imperialism and included comparing movie treatments of this novel with the actual events of this conflict culminating in a "History vs,. Hollywood" writing response.

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Philosophy of Education and Multiculturalism in Humanities

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Philosophy of Education and Multiculturalism in Humanities

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Ashley Ducker - Students are reflecting on lessons they have experienced in the past and lessons they recommend for the future concerning African American author James Banks' Multicultural Integration scale

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Students create a digital scrapbook on what they believe were the most import events of the Civil Rights movement. They include major accomplishments of organizations, events, legislation, people, place etc. and state their claim as to WHY they believe each item chosen was one of the most important or influential events

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Each morning in advisory we covered relevant topics and events. We started with the introduction of slavery and ended with modern Civil Rights issues (BLM, Redlining and Economic Segregation). Each Thursday we covered the biography of a person involved in each time period and their contributions. Each Friday we read and discussed a piece of poetry connected to the time period.

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Since we'll about to start WWII in WHAG, we've been discussing a lot of about ideologies, including Nazi ideologies. His story is a natural part to include in the discussion.

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We've been looking at Americans throughout history that have been voices of resistance to racism.

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Cognitive underpinnings of implicit bias and overall impact on contemporary society;
Guest speaker (neurology) - who provides representation for my African, African-American students. Many of the famous psychologists students see in the textbook are (dead) white males.

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William Hastie's resignation speech from FDR's administration over no movement on military desegregation

Langston Hughes poem--Beaumont to Detroit 1943

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William Hastie's resignation speech from FDR's administration over no movement on military desegregation

Langston Hughes poem--Beaumont to Detroit 1943

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Continuing our social justice work: Lessons have included, but are not limited to 1)  Social construction of race. 2) The sanitized view of MLK 3) Weekly history of racial injustice reports. 

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Continuing our social justice work: Lessons have included, but are not limited to 1)  Social construction of race. 2) The sanitized view of MLK 3) Weekly history of racial injustice reports. 

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~ Research projects on Tuskegee Airmen.
~ African American Women's Roles in WWII on the Homefront.
~ Photo Analysis project of Black Soldiers in WWI.
~ Dust Bowl experiences of Minorities in America CER.

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Video, reading, discussion, and questions about Jesse Owens that went beyond his triumph over Nazi ideology. It also continued with his experiences in the U.S. after the Olympics, including racism at home.

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Post-AAH Assembly Reflection with participants

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Post-AAH Assembly Reflection with participants

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As a culminating activity in our Know Your Rights unit I teach about mass incarceration. Students take a critical look at our prison system in the context of race and the inheritances of slavery. We watched the Netflix documentary 13th and then had a panel of lawyers of color from the community who came in and facilitated discussions about the documentary and associated issues

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Profile of Influential African Americans 

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Profile of Influential African Americans 

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Students research an influential African American and present to the class about this person. Students are not allowed to research athletes or pop music artist from the last 10 years. Entrepreneurs, artists, local heroes, etc, living or dead are encouraged.

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We read articles about Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and Dr. King. We discussed the strategies of each and how they compared and contrasted. Students then completed a CER about which leader or organization they would have followed had they been alive during that period.

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We read articles about Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and Dr. King. We discussed the strategies of each and how they compared and contrasted. Students then completed a CER about which leader or organization they would have followed had they been alive during that period.

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Cheryl Plouffe - Skyline HS

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BHM:
Mentioning something every single day that  occurred on that day of the month in African American History.  Also, hallway bulletin board outside my classroom has a list of all the patents awarded to African Americans from 1790 to 1860.  Lastly, current event updates on positive African American and others of color in our world today emailed to  Social Studies colleagues around the District, as well as shared with my students.
Bruce Geffen

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BHM:
Mentioning something every single day that  occurred on that day of the month in African American History.  Also, hallway bulletin board outside my classroom has a list of all the patents awarded to African Americans from 1790 to 1860.  Lastly, current event updates on positive African American and others of color in our world today emailed to  Social Studies colleagues around the District, as well as shared with my students.
Bruce Geffen

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For example...

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When most people think about long distance trails in the United States, they probably go straight to the big-name classics like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail. But this country is crisscrossed with plenty of other lengthy routes, the likes of which were originally traveled long before Cheryl Strayed chucked that infamous Danner boot off a cliff.

Among these historic paths, there's the Trail of Tears, which is less a single route than it is a tangled web, each strand signifying the violent forced removal of Native American people from their ancestral homelands. There's the Pony Express National Historic Trail, which commemorates the famous pre-telegraph communications system that galloped through eight western states. And there's the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, a 2,000-mile journey that roughly parallels its clandestine namesake, which was staffed with abolitionists and traveled by African-Americans who sought freedom from slavery in the early 19 th century. This is the trail Daniel White chose to travel-for himself, for his ancestors, and for the next generation.

White is an electrician by trade, a carpenter by skill, a rapper by passion, and a hiker by happenstance. He grew up in the largely African-American enclave of Shiloh, on the southern fringe of Asheville, North Carolina. Here, he indulged in the joys of childhood-riding bikes, playing basketball, fishing with his parents, and chasing salamanders across the humid landscape.

He had never hiked, never camped, and only barely traveled away from home when a Facebook comment from a cousin sparked his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail. He began researching the trail in his spare time and was so intrigued by its possibilities that he decided to just go for it, seeing how much he could knock off in two months. When that time was up, (now with a trail name-"The Blackalachian"), entranced by the community he found on the AT, White decided to go ahead and finish the rest of its 2,200 miles. His Twitter bio now reads "First Rapper to hike the Appalachian Trail."

"It kind of changed my outlook on everything. It'll restore your faith in humanity, it gives you a sense of belief in yourself, confidence in yourself; you really believe you can do anything after that," says White. "I'm still discovering ways it changed me today. It's a never-ending gift, I think."

During his post-trail transition back home in Charlotte, North Carolina, White began giving talks about his experience and leading hikes with an array of local nonprofits and schools including the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the University of North Carolina-Asheville's Center for Diversity. He also began dreaming about a follow-up experience, and wondered how he could use that experience-and his newfound influence-to help inspire young people to get outdoors.

"Even though the Appalachian Trail was beautiful, I didn't have a heritage connection to it," he says. "I just didn't have that soul connection to it." Enter the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, which would allow White to not only learn more about his ancestors, but also travel along the path they took toward freedom.

The trail stretches just over 2,000 miles between Mobile, Alabama, a port city that participated in the slave trade, and Ontario, Canada's Owen Sound, where freedom-seekers found a permanent home in the village of Sydenham. It doesn't follow the exact path used by slaves and abolitionists, since many of the original routes were kept secret to protect its travelers, but it winds past plaques, homes, churches, statues, rivers, and other locations key to their passage.

When White decided to undertake his journey, he hadn't been on a bike for the better part of twenty years; in fact, he only acquired one a month before departing, thanks to a sponsorship from REI. He was only able to fit in a few training rides, but still felt confident in his ability to learn along the way-after all, that's what he did on the Appalachian Trail.

White spent 49 days riding from the route's southern terminus to Niagara Falls, averaging 40 to 50 miles per day. He found it challenging to deal with untethered dogs and unpredictable traffic; in fact, he got sideswiped on his third day out ("a wakeup call"), but he soon fell into a rhythm, enjoying the faster pace of cycling and the solitude of riding along a trail rarely traveled in modern times.

There were plenty of memorable moments along the way-stringing his hammock right above a pile of fire ants, camping in a small cemetery, and narrowly avoiding being trampled by a herd of angry buffalo. White took it all in stride. "It keeps you fresh, it keeps you in the moment, it keeps you on your toes," he laughs. "It's all good."

But the most meaningful parts of the journey were those steeped in history. On the first day of his ride, White stopped in Africatown, a Mobile, Alabama, neighborhood settled after the Civil War by those who arrived on the Clotilda, the last slave ship to dock in the United States. His visit affected him so much that White now wants to help restore the now-dilapidated community cemetery. "That's almost like an ancient burial site, so that should be protected," he says.

Through the miles, White made more stops. In Louisville, Kentucky, he visited a statute of Andrew York, who served as a prominent member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, despite being enslaved to the very same. In Ripley, Ohio, White learned about abolitionists Reverend John Rankin and John P. Parker, the latter a former slave who risked it all to help others be freed. In New Albany, Indiana, he took a small detour to the Second Baptist Church, where Pastor LeRoy Marshall showed him the basement that served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. And after finishing at Niagara Falls, White made one last stop, to embark on a private tour of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in Auburn, New York. "They had a bible in there," he says. "That was a good culmination of the whole experience for me."

White has been home for almost a month; he went back to work his third day back. As when he finished the Appalachian Trail, the experience of returning to Charlotte has been surreal. "The whole trip was just kind of dope," he says. "I don't even think I've been able to process it yet."

Still, a few overarching themes are beginning to come through. First, he's as convinced as ever in the overall goodness of fellow humans, despite the heartbreaking history of the route he traveled and the pervasive negativity of the news cycle. "All of us have, deep down inside, that kid in them, that dream. When you see somebody doing something that you feel like is kind of beyond, above, just out of the ordinary, you're like, Wow. People can really latch on to that because deep down, they wish that they could do something like that, too," he says. "Everybody I met showed me love. They was all different colors, all walks of life-it was just all love."

Even more than that, perhaps, White knows he'll always carry with him the lessons of the past. "Having to live through the eyes of your ancestors every day-I definitely felt that on a daily basis. Even just coming through Mississippi and Alabama, and seeing all those cotton fields, and just thinking, Man, all that blood on that," he says. "Cotton should really just grow red, you know. Imagine if it just grew red. I don't think it would be as pretty as it looks."

But he'll also carry his ancestors' strength. "That's what we came from. You came from courageous people, black and white and Native," he says. "We need some backbone again, I think. I'm not trying to say that people are weak or anything like that, but I just need us to understand where we came from as a country."

For now, White will continue processing his journey (and uploading fresh videos to his popular YouTube channel) while eyeing future travels, including a "collaborative trip with a few other big guys in the outdoor industry" that he's not yet ready to name. He hopes other people will consider taking trips of their own, whether big or small.

"I know how therapeutic [it is] getting out in the world, seeing stuff, meeting people from different walks of life, and learning about new cultures. I know how good that can be and how healing it can be for this country, and just for people in general, so that's why I encourage people to get outside, go try something different," says White. "The world is huge-don't get me wrong-but it's a lot smaller than we think it is. I'm showing you I can just ride up the middle of it on a bike or I can walk up the eastern seaboard with my feet. I'm showing you this. So it's like, even if you jump in a car, go somewhere, do something. If you're saying the world is mine? The world is yours."

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The Underground Railroad Bike Route Is A Source of History and Hope

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When most people think about long distance trails in the United States, they probably go straight to the big-name classics like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail. But this country is crisscrossed with plenty of other lengthy routes, the likes of which were originally traveled long before Cheryl Strayed chucked that infamous Danner boot off a cliff.

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Writing school wide advisory lessons about BHM topics like great migration, black diaspora, different artists like Kehinde Wiley and figures that students might not be familiar with.

In addition, BHM coincides with a unit about Apartheid - global black history.

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Comparisons of the Maji-Maji rebellion in East Africa to the Ghost Dance Movement in the American West; The successful and ingenious defense of Ethiopia from European interests by Menelik II and his empire.

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Students are currently researching Civil Rights Heroes; African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Women, LGBTQ, and Native American Civil Rights leadership. Students are encouraged to include how some of the people also work in other areas of Civil Rights demonstrating  intersectionality. They will demonstrate their learning through Posters, PowerPoint, and/or iMovie and Adobe Smart. Students created the rubric, criteria of a hero, and what should be included in their presentations.

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What did you do