Friday, Mar. 16, 2018

Ida B. Wells was an investigative reporter who exposed the systematic lynching of black men in the South. Her work made her the most famous black woman in the country. But when she died in 1931, at the age of 68, The New York Times failed to write an obituary. Obituaries in The Times have been long dominated by white men. Now, the paper of record is trying to fix the record. Guests: Amisha Padnani, the digital editor on The Times’s obituaries desk and a leader of the Overlooked project; Caitlin Dickerson, a national reporter for The Times; Michelle Duster, a professor at Columbia College Chicago and a great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.