• by Sara Guaglione , February 1, 2019

The New York Times has expanded its “Overlooked” obituary column to bring attention to prominent black men and women from the past, ahead of Black History Month.

“Overlooked” launched last year to coincide with Women’s History Month. It originally spotlighted women in history who were not included in the obituary section of The Times, due to a historical lack of representation.

The column is now on its way to becoming a scripted TV series, in partnership with Anonymous Content, Paramount Television and 3Dot Productions. The women featured in the project were part of a New York Times print marketing ad.

This month's Overlooked project includes figures like filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, composer Scott Joplin, fashion designer Zelda Winn Valdez and Granville T. Woods, known to many as the "Black Edison."

It is available online and in a special print section of The New York Times this Sunday. The New York Times will add to the section each week through February.

Most of the tens of thousands of obituaries The New York Times has printed since its founding in 1851 highlighted the work of white men, ignoring trailblazing women and people of color.

William McDonald, obituaries editor of The New York Times, wrote in March 2018 that the reason for this is "relatively few” women, people of color and LGBTQ people “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.”

Amisha Padnani began developing the idea for this series shortly after becoming digital editor of obituaries in early 2017.
Separately, The New York Times today also announced the launch of a new game, Letter Boxed.

The Times hopes to build on the dedicated audience its Crosswrod product draws, which has more than 400,000 subscribers paying about $7 a month. It plans to continue to introduce “a number of new digital games for puzzle fanatics as part of its subscription offerings.” Access to Letter Boxed requires a Crossword subscription.

Letter Boxed is the second, a game where players spell words by connecting letters lining a box. 

The games expansion team undergoes a number of tests with Times staffers and select groups on NYTimes.com to produce a game.