{"id":429,"date":"2023-08-18T14:37:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T14:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/?page_id=429"},"modified":"2024-10-08T17:41:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T17:41:17","slug":"the-ebony-quill","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/the-ebony-quill\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebony Quill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1972, Naomi Iris Bryant \u201974 started a column called the Ebony Quill <\/em>which featured the voices and perspectives of Black women. <\/em>In 1979 it became a weekly section called Third World Voice and was uniquely reserved for the voices of women of color. The section had a separate staff from the newspaper publication. While the term \u201cThird World\u201d is now outdated, in 1979 the section was considered a historic and groundbreaking event. In the 1990s, Third World Voice became Voices! <\/em>in order to more accurately describe the diversity of its contributors and breadth of focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Choragos<\/em>. February 14, 1974.<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos<\/em>. September 13, 1979.<\/sup><\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Emily Bernstein \u201818 wrote a history of the column in the March 1, 2018 edition of Mount Holyoke News<\/em>, titled \u201cThe paper struggles to feature voices of color\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow does one share Blackness with non-Blacks?\u201d asked columnist Naomi Iris Bryant \u201974 in the inaugural edition of The Ebony Quill. Bryant wrote: \u201cSharing Blackness is understanding how to take a pinch of happiness and live joyfully with it for a lifetime,\u201d she wrote. \u201cSharing Blackness is going to a Seven Sisters school and having \u2018[N—–]\u2019 shouted at you from a car of teenage boys in Holyoke, Mass\u2026Sharing Blackness is, anyway, something not learned, but earned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The column also revealed racism on campus. In one edition, a letter to the editor expressed distaste for Denise McLeod\u2019s writing. McLeod \u201874, who took over as Ebony Quill columnist on Feb. 8, 1973, contributed thought-provoking and poetic content about race, representation, and being Black at Mount Holyoke. She responded: \u201cBlacks on this campus know [racism] exists\u2026 It is too bad that a column like \u2018The Ebony Quill\u2019 had to be invented to let the rest of the campus know that it is alive and well at Mount Holyoke College. It is too bad that the ignorance about this is alive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Choragos. March 15, 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos. April 12, 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos. April 26, 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos. May 3, 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos. October 11, 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Choragos. September 26, 1974.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1972, Naomi Iris Bryant \u201974 started a column called the Ebony Quill which featured the voices and perspectives of Black women. In 1979 it became a weekly section called Third World Voice and was uniquely reserved for the voices of women of color. The section had a separate staff from the newspaper publication. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-nosidebar.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-429","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/blackhistoryatmhc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}