There May Be Racism In Alabama

The only federal contribution I could find from Goodloe Sutton of Linden, Alabama (population, almost 2,000 is about half white) was to Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. I can certainly understand the affinity. Sutton edits the local newspaper, the Democrat Reporter and he's a proud Klan guy. Tuesday, USA Today shined a light on Sutton's coat and tie brand of murderous KKK extremism. Wait, wait... he didn't kill anyone, as far as we know; he just urged others to-- people in DC. There's one very gerrymandered congressional district in Alabama. It goes hither and thither to sweep up as many African American communities as possible and wall them off in one district: AL-07. Linden (and Marengo County, of which it is the county seat) wound up in the 7th-- which is only 32% white and also happens to be the 431st poorest congressional district out of the country's 435. I have a strong feeling Goodloe Sutton isn't happy his Representative is Terri Sewell, a black woman and a Democrat.

Last Thursday-- Valentine's Day-- Sutton penned a short Op-Ed, Klan Needs To Ride Again. Take a look:

Questioned about it by Melissa Brown, a reporter from the Montgomery Advertiser Sutton said "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we'd all been better of."

Asked to elaborate what he meant by "cleaning up D.C.," Sutton suggested lynching.

  "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them," Sutton said.

When asked if he felt it was appropriate for the publisher of a newspaper to call for the lynching of Americans, Sutton doubled down on his position.

"... It's not calling for the lynchings of Americans. These are socialist-communists we're talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?" Sutton said.

When asked if he recognized the KKK as a racist and violent organization, Sutton disagreed, comparing the Klan to the NAACP.

"A violent organization? Well, they didn't kill but a few people," Sutton said. "The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be."

Sutton, 79, said he didn't know any Klan remaining in the area, stating most died out after the 1960s.

The editor said he welcomed people to call him, write him a letter or boycott him.

Sutton, who has worked at the paper since 1964, inherited the publication from his father.

...Locals in west Alabama say the Democrat-Reporter has a history of inflammatory, racist and offensive language on the editorial page. A review of archived print editions reveal headlines such as "Homosexuals take black spotlight" and an editorial which stated "Slavery was a good lesson for Jews."

In 2015, the paper ran a headline titled: “Selma black thugs murder Demopolite Saturday night.” At that time, the paper had about 3,000 subscribers.

The paper also regularly republishes what appear to old editorials from the 1930s and 1940s, which include multiple instances of racist slurs.

Judson Coleman, a 38-year-old who calls the Linden and Demopolis area home, said the Democrat-Reporter has "called for violence against minorities for years."

"It has gone unchecked for decades," said Coleman, who is African-American.

Coleman said people in the community have "become numb" to the weekly newspaper. But he's frustrated by the idea that outsiders might have of Marengo County, which was about 51 percent black and 46 percent white, according to 2018 U.S. Census numbers.

Monday evening Democratic Senator Doug Jones and Rep. Sewell both called for Sutton to step down. "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," wrote Sewell. "These comments are deeply offensive and inappropriate, especially in 2019. Mr. Sutton should apologize and resign." Jones has been tweeting:

Republican Richard Shelby, a former Democrat and Alabama’s senior Senator, urged Sutton to apologize and resign in a Tuesday-morning statement to Yahoo News. "The rhetoric displayed by the Democrat-Reporter is disturbing, disgusting and entirely unacceptable. I urge the newspaper to issue an apology and the publisher to resign from his duties. We cannot tolerate this sort of repulsive speech, particularly from our fourth estate."