Book club rediscovers 1902 Newark Black author
In the summer of 2017, a group of women stumbled upon a bit of mystery as they gathered in Licking County Library for their weekly book club meeting. They were there to discuss a story, a witty romance titled “An Equation,” by Gertrude Dorsey Brown originally published in 1902. The biographical information on her was sparse, tucked into the last pages of the anthology of stories by African American women writers they were reading. A short entry noted, though, that she was from Newark, Ohio. This sparked excitement and curiosity. Brown’s life was unknown by any in the room and, soon, they would discover, by most in Licking County. This story is the third part of a series of written and audio stories called Black Lives in Licking County, a collaboration between the NAACP of Licking County, The Reporting Project at Denison University, and the Newark Advocate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.