Rhizomatic Democracy in the 19th-Century Black Press of Ohio

FAIN: FEL-273870-21

Jewon Woo
Lorain County Community College (Elyria, OH 44035-1613)

Preparation for a digital monograph on nineteenth-century black newspapers in Ohio and their role in civic life.

Rhizomatic Democracy analyzes the 19th-century black press in Ohio to introduce early African Americans’ civic engagement that ripened our perception of democracy. DH tools are essential to this research and publication because quantitative methods with data and digital visualization can make visible what, like early black communities in the Midwest, has been considered hard to trace. This project offers informative and interpretative essays through both close and distance reading of the newspapers to show dynamic communal life of 19th-century black Ohioans, who legitimized their sovereignty by demonstrating civic qualification as a response to and beyond the government system that had failed to maintain its constitutional promise on human rights. The project serves as a tool for civic education by offering accessible digital resource for the learning public, in order to promote a better understanding of the maturation of American democracy and the use of DH tools for equity.