Hot Seat: Alabama Newspaper Publisher Retires

Goodloe Sutton

A black woman is the new editor and publisher of an Alabama newspaper after her predecessor has stepped down following widespread condemnation of his Feb. 14 editorial that called for mass lynchings and for saying that the Ku Klux Klan needed to “clean out” Washington.

“Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” the editorial in the weekly Democrat-Reporter read. The text asserted Democrats, along with some Republicans, were planning to raise taxes in Alabama. “Seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities up there,” it continued.

When confronted, the paper’s publisher and editor, Goodloe Sutton, stood by his words, telling the Montgomery Advertiser that people who were upset could call him, write a letter or boycott the paper if they wanted. He inherited the publication, which is based in Linden, Ala., and has a circulation of about 3,000, from his father in the 1980s.

On Thursday, however, Sutton had an apparent change of heart. He turned control of the paper over to Elecia Dexter — an African American woman from Chicago who served as the paper’s front office clerk.

“Everything has been a little surreal, and there’s a lot going on,” Dexter said in an interview Saturday. “I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

According to The Washington Post, Dexter is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in speech communication, according to a news release announcing her appointment. She also received a master’s degree in human services from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago and a master’s degree in counseling from Argosy University in Virginia.