Black woman takes over Alabama newspaper from racist publisher

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

Black Woman Takes Over Alabama Newspaper From Racist Publisher

2019’s Black History Month has been chocked-full of turmoil, scandal, and has suffered a severe case of WTF-itis.

However, it hasn’t been all bad. Take this example for instance.

According to NPR, the publisher of the Alabama newspaper, The Democrat-Reporter, Goodloe Sutton has resigned after penning a cowardly and racist editorial without a byline

“If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off,” Sutton told the Montgomery Advertiser. “We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them.”

Sutton’s former position will be filled by a Black woman, Elecia R. Dexter, after she approached Sutton to air her displeasure with his piece according to The Washington Post. Dexter had only worked at the paper for six weeks as a front desk clerk, but don’t get it f**ked up, she is MORE than qualified to run the newspaper. Dexter graduated from Eastern Illinois University, with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication. She also has a master’s degree in human services from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago as well as a master’s degree in counseling from Argosy University.

She’s built for this.

“[He] took a group that has a lot of negativity associated to it, especially for people like me, of color,” Dexter said.

“There are different ways to communicate you wanted Washington to be cleaned up without using that particular reference,” she added.

Thursday Sutton told Elecia that he would be resigning and wanted her to take the reigns of the Democrat-Reporter.

Dexter said she did not know about the editorials before joining the paper but “started to hear little things” as she became familiar with the community. She moved to her father’s hometown of nearby Sweet Water, Ala., in December and joined the Democrat-Reporter shortly afterward.

“When that article came out, I saw what other people had seen years and years ago,” she said.

Happy Black History Month!!!