Thread by @mattdelmont

Launching today – "Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African American Newspapers," an open-access digital book from @stanfordpress blackquotidian.org

Here is a thread on Black Quotidian’s motivations, structure, arguments, and influences…

Black Quotidian explores how the black press popularized Af-Am history and valued the lives of black people. Introductory essays on the history of black newspapers are followed by over 365 short posts on individual historical newspaper articles blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/overview

You can explore Black Quotidian in several different ways. You can start with one of the 8 thematic paths blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/themes Or, you can start with a specific month blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/march---arc… Or, you can pick a random date blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/july-30-1955

Black Quotidian developed as a response to teaching Af-Am history in the era of Black Lives Matter. I worried that my students would only see black history as a story of tragedy & struggle, without appreciating the joyous complexity of everyday black lives blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/introduction

While Black Quotidian includes posts about iconic figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, & Harriet Tubman, I also try to call attention to people and events that are not commonly featured in textbooks or Black History Month celebrations. blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/introduction

In looking beyond black icons to highlight everyday black life, Black Quotidian builds on the work of @NicoleFleetwoo2, Kevin Quashie, and @rembert
blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/beyond-blac…

I also created Black Quotidian because my research process had started to feel stale. For my 2nd book I looked at 10K+ digitized newspaper articles, but I missed experience of working w/ microfilm reels & unexpectedly stumbling across interesting stories blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/research-ex…

By querying databases in different ways, Black Quotidian attempts to structure digital interaction as an act of joy. blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/research-ex…

Black Quotidian is a born digital project built with @anvcscalar, an open-access, multimedia web-authoring platform that enables authors to assemble images, videos, maps, and other media and to juxtapose these resources with text. blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/scalar-and-…

Digital history represents a new way to continue traditions that have long been important for scholars of African-American history and culture. Black newspapers encouraged readers to see black history as something that is made & should be studied everyday blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/history

Similar to @nhannahjones’s #1619Project, 20th century black newspapers gave readers information & tools to learn, study & teach black history everyday, not just in February. They called for reconstructing a racist curriculum of American history
blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/collecting-…

One of the ways black newspapers supported this everyday approach to history was by featuring illustrated biographical profiles of black figures, such as J.A. Rogers’ “Your History & “Facts About the Negro” and Melvin Tapley’s “Our People”
blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/historical-…

These black newspaper profiles echo “The Black Book,” the 1974 collection of ephemera edited by Toni Morrison, and @HenryLouisGates's “100 Amazing Facts about the Negro” blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/historical-…

Like “The Black Book” and “100 Amazing Facts about the Negro,” Black Quotidian embraces a mode of historical inquiry that emphasizes play, exploration, and amazement over linear narratives blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/historical-…

Black Quotidian builds on the work of several Black Digital Studies scholars, including @alondra @ccamrun2 @KeishaBlain @JTRoane @DrSashaTurner @profgabrielle @jimccasey1 @QuintardTaylor @jmjafrx @amplify285 @NewBlackMan
blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/scalar-and-…

Over fifty students & scholars contributed guest posts to Black Quotidian, including @adamarenson’s students at Manhattan College, @nmaurantonio’s students at U of Richmond, @KimberlyZarecor’s students at Iowa State U, & my former online MA students at ASU blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/acknowledge…

Thank you to the @anvcscalar team, including @tmcphers @craigdietrich @opertoon @curtis_fletch. The @NEH_ODH workshop at USC in 2011 where I learned to use Scalar has proven to be one of the most important experiences in my professional life.
blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/acknowledge…

Thank you to the @stanfordpress team, including @ThePennywark and Greta Lindquist. @jasminemulliken did amazing work on the digital production & Senior Editor Friederike Sundaram supported the project throughout and helped me get to the finish line blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/acknowledge…

Thank you to @profwernimont for introducing me to Digital Humanities and for helping think through Black Quotidian’s arguments and structure. As @susansmulyan once noted, I married into DH blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/acknowledge…

Finally, Black Quotidian is dedicated to my father & grandmother, Frank E. Bowman & Leari Jean Anderson, who passed away in the 3 years I worked on this project. They never appeared in the Chicago Defender or Twin Cities Courier, but they are remembered blackquotidian.supdigital.org/bq/acknowledge…

Thank you to @BlackDigitalHum @spelmandiva & @EthanMichaeli for your important scholarship on Black Press & Black History and for your support of Black Quotidian blackquotidian.org