Editing practices: Black women's editing, 1877-1919

Abstract

Editing Practices: Black Women’s Editing, 1880-1919 examines Black women’s editing practices across several textual forms during the post-bellum, pre-Harlem—the years following the end of Reconstruction and before the Harlem Renaissance. This dissertation shows how Black women engaged in editing as both a textual act in which they arranged and recontextualized texts as well as an ideological act in which they created and supported their communities; wrote beyond the interstices into which they were relegated; explored and experimented with what Black women’s voices would be and would say in print; and confronted misogynoir narratives about Black women. I trace this new understanding of Black women’s editing through several textual forms: newspapers and magazines (chapter 1), nonfiction (chapter 2), lists (chapter 3), and fiction (chapter 4), expanding our understanding of what editing is and how it is being used. I tie this work to Black women’s social work, Black women’s organizing, and Black education initiatives of the time as well as to the modern era, as Black women editors, writers, and intellectuals continue to edit misogynoir narratives and edit space to write beyond those narratives in their own voices.