The longtime owner and editor of a small Alabama newspaper that called for a revival of the Ku Klux Klan has sold the publication and retired, months after igniting a firestorm with the editorial, the new owner told The Associated Press.
Goodloe Sutton, 80, no longer has any role with The Democrat-Reporter newspaper in Linden, said Tommy Wells, the new owner and operator.
“He doesn’t even have a key anymore,” Wells said.
Sutton received widespread attention after publishing an editorial in February that advocated a return of KKK night riders to deal with Democrats and “Democrats in the Republican Party” in Washington. Two universities subsequently rescinded awards to Sutton, and the Alabama Press Association censured him.
Wells, working with his wife, published his first edition of the newspaper last month. He announced Sutton’s July 1 retirement in a story published in Thursday’s edition.
“It’s mine now. I have a bill of sale and everything,” Wells said.
With about three decades in the newspaper business, Wells said in the article he talked to Sutton several years ago about acquiring the Democrat-Reporter. Wells, who has been working as a sports publicist at a small college in Texas, said he called Sutton after hearing Sutton planned to close it.
“When Goodloe said he was going to close the business, I know it sounds cheesy, but it was a blow to me. I told him, “Alright, don’t close it. I’ll do it. It’ll be crazy for a while, but I’ll do it,” Wells said in the story.
Speaking with AP in April, Sutton said health problems had left him with diminished mental capacities.
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