In 2018, the New York Times began adding as a regular feature to its Obituaries section the lives of those who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked.
“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. “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.” Amisha Padnani and Jessica Bennett, The New York Times
“So why not more women and people of color on the obituary pages? (Why, for that matter, not more openly gay people, or transgender people?),” writes William McDonald, New York Times Obituaries Editor since 2006. “The larger answer: Because relatively few of them were allowed to make such a mark on society in their own time. Universities may have barred them. Businesses and political parties may have shut them out. The tables of power were crowded with white men; there were few seats for anyone else.”
Read about Ofuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I.