Outrage after newspaper calls for KKK to terrorize DC Democrats ‘Hang all of them’
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A small-town Alabama newspaper editor wrote a racist editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to “clean out D.C.” and ride again against “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders says he’s running for president in 2020—
Editor Goodloe Sutton of the Democrat-Reporter wrote the alarming editorial which wasn’t posted online but on Monday, two student-journalists at Auburn University posted photographs on Twitter of the actual newspaper clipping which started circulating heavily online.
The Democrat-Reporter back at it again with things you’d never thought you’d see published anymore. pic.twitter.com/i5b7gKD1SC
— Mikayla Burns (@mikaylasburns) February 18, 2019
According to the NY Daily News, Sutton also called for lynchings and complained of the threat of taxes being raised in the state and wrote: “Seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities.”
When a reporter from the Montgomery Advertiser reached out to Sutton to verify if he indeed wrote the post, he doubled down saying: “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.”
According to AL.com, two members of Alabama’s congressional delegation are calling for the editor’s resignation.”
Senator Doug Jones, who once prosecuted two members of the Klan for their role in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young girls, called the hateful editorial “disgusting” and demanded Sutton resign immediately.
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“OMG! What rock did this guy crawl out from under? This editorial is absolutely disgusting & he should resign -NOW! I have seen what happens when we stand by while people-especially those with influence- publish racist, hateful views. Words matter. Actions matter. Resign now!,” Senator Jones tweeted Monday.
“I have seen what happens when we stand by while people-especially those with influence- publish racist, hateful views,” he wrote.
OMG! What rock did this guy crawl out from under? This editorial is absolutely disgusting & he should resign -NOW!
I have seen what happens when we stand by while people-especially those with influence- publish racist, hateful views.
Words matter. Actions matter. Resign now! https://t.co/V1V1vxDBKH
— Doug Jones (@DougJones) February 19, 2019
Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.), also condemned the editorial and wrote, “For the millions of people of color who have been terrorized by white supremacy, this kind of ‘editorializing’ about lynching is not a joke — it is a threat.”