A black woman takes over from the publisher who called KKK to "ride again": NPR



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Goodloe Sutton, presented here at a prize-giving ceremony in 1998, has ceded the Democratic reporter's control to Elecia Dexter.

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Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images

Goodloe Sutton, presented here at a prize-giving ceremony in 1998, has ceded the Democratic reporter's control to Elecia Dexter.

Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images

The editor of a small local newspaper in Alabama wrote an editorial calling the Ku Klux Klan to "get back to the wheel". After a public outcry, he resigned and a black woman took the job.

The new publisher and publisher of The democratic reporterElecia R. Dexter took the reins on Thursday after Goodloe Sutton doubled her inflammatory comments.

"If we could get the Klan out there and clean up D.C., we would have all been better off," Sutton told Montgomery's announcer. "We are going to take out the hemp ropes, pass them over a large member and hang them all."

The original editorial, published without an author's name, claimed that Democrats and Republicans "were plotting to raise taxes in Alabama". He said: "It looks like the Klan would be welcome to attack the closed communities up there." Sutton confirmed at the Advertiser that he wrote the piece.

In a statement, the newspaper said it "has been providing the community of West Alabama with quality information for over 140 years and you can be sure that Ms. Dexter will continue this tradition and steer the paper into a new direction" . He noted that Dexter's family "has deep roots and a rich history in Marengo County".

"Everything has been a little surreal and a lot is going on," Dexter said in an interview with the Washington Post. "I am grateful for this opportunity."

She said to the To post that she had been working at the newspaper for about six weeks as a receptionist when the editorial was published. She said she was disappointed and talked to Sutton about it.

"[He] took a group that has a lot of negativity associated, especially for people like me, colored, "said Dexter, according to the To post. "There are different ways to communicate, you wanted Washington cleaned without using that particular reference."

According to Democratic journalistDexter holds a Bachelor's degree in Oral Communication from Eastern Illinois University and two Masters degrees: one in Human Services from the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and another in Counseling from Argosy University. "Over the past 10 years, she has been a strategic leader with expertise in human resources, operations and change management," the paper said.

In an email, Dexter told NPR that Sutton remained the owner of the newspaper. Alabama lawmakers celebrated the change in editorial leadership.

"His dangerous views do not represent either Alabama or the small town newspapers of Alabama that do great work every day," said Senator Doug. Jones, a democrat, says in a tweet. "The good people of Linden deserve so much better than these racist ravings and I am confident that they will get it with the new editor, Elecia Dexter."

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Called Sutton withdraws "the right thing to do." She called Sutton to apologize.

As NPR's Sasha Ingber noted, the editorial was not on the newspaper's website. But Auburn University students tweeted pictures of the printed story, which drew national attention to the Democratic journalist.

Sutton has received praise for his newspaper's investigative work, according to Ingber: "In the 1990s," Ole Goodloe "exposed corruption in the sheriff's department of Marengo County. Society of Professional Journalists. "

At the same time, as the Associated Press noted, "Sutton has a history of publishing editorials insensitive to racism and ethnicity".

Several organizations have deprived Sutton of awards. Auburn University awarded him, in 2009, to his beloved wife, Jean Sutton, the Alabama Distinguished Community Journalist Award – an official from Auburn said that she had withdrawn the Sutton Award and not recognized that Jean Sutton.

And as Kyle Gassiott of Troy University Public Radio reports, "The University of Southern Mississippi has removed Sutton from its Hall of Fame and the Alabama Press Association has officially censored it."

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