Alabama newspaper where publisher wrote KKK-invoking editorial is now run by a black woman

Goodloe Sutton, the publisher and owner of the Linden, Alabama, Democrat-Reporter, made national headlines last week for his family's weekly newspaper, but not in a good way. After acknowledging that he wrote an unsigned editorial titled "Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again," Sutton doubled down, telling the Montgomery Advertiser that not only would the KKK be welcome to "raid the gated communities" of unnamed Washington, D.C., Democrats "plotting to raise taxes," as he wrote in the editorial, but "we'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb, and hang all of them."

On Thursday, he handed editorial control of the paper to Elecia Dexter, who had joined the newspaper as its front office clerk six weeks ago, after moving down to nearby Sweet Water from Chicago in December. "Everything has been a little surreal, and there's a lot going on," Dexter, who is black, told The Washington Post on Saturday. "I'm grateful for this opportunity." Dexter 46, said she and Sutton had an "open and honest" talk about his editorial, and he told her she could carry on the legacy of the newspaper — which his family bought in 1917 and he inherited in the 1980s — by taking it in a "new direction."

Dexter, who also said she had planned to leave if no changes were made, told the Post that her first goal will be to make sure "the people of this community feel this paper represents them and their views," adding, "Family, community looking out for each other — I would like to take a personal component moving forward, so people feel like it's their paper, which it is." According to an announcement sent to the paper's roughly 3,000 subscribers, Dexter has a bachelor's degree in speech communication from Eastern Illinois University and master's degrees from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago and Virginia's Argosy University.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up