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Black Woman Hired as New Editor and Publisher of Alabama Newspaper That Called for KKK to ‘Ride Again’
https://www.thewrap.com/alabama-new...crat-reporter-elecia-r-dexter-goodloe-sutton/
After both local and nationwide condemnation, Goodloe Sutton, the editor of the local Alabama newspaper The Democrat-Reporter, announced he is stepping down after publishing an op-ed calling for the Ku Klux Klan to ride again. He is being replaced by 46-year-old African-American Elecia R. Dexter,
The New York Times reports.
While Sutton is stepping down as editor, he will remain on to advise Dexter. According to The Times, Sutton said he is leaving the post due to his age and refuses to apologize for the op-ed, which he said was written “in irony.”
Dexter, who has a masters degree in human services and counseling, and joined The Democrat-Reporter as an office clerk less than two months ago with no prior journalistic experience.
Sutton, 80, has been in charge of The Democrat-Reporter since the 1980s as the 144-year-old paper has been in his family for generations. According to The Times, the paper had respect in the town of Linden, AL, for investigative reporting into local law enforcement corruption.
But in the past few years, Sutton and The Democrat-Reporter have faced backlash for publishing several racially charged op-eds, including a 2017 article with no byline called “Let Football Boys Kneel” that attacked Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem.
“That’s what black folks were taught to do two hundred years ago, kneel before a white man,”
read the piece. “Is that it? Let them kneel!”
