The editor of a small-town Alabama newspaper has published an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to rid Washington, DC, of the Democrats and Republicans he says are “plotting” to raise taxes in his home state.
“Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” Goodloe Sutton, who runs the Democrat-Reporter in Linden, wrote last Thursday. “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama.”
Democrats “do not understand how to eliminate expenses when money is needed in other areas,” he continued. “This socialist-communist ideology sounds good to the ignorant, the uneducated, and the simple-minded people.
“People who do not understand the constitution do not like to be responsible. Slaves, just freed after the civil war, were not stupid. At times, they borrowed their former masters’ robes and horses and rode through the night to frighten some evil doer. Sometimes they had to kill one or two of them, but so what.”
He ended the piece by saying that it “seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities up there. They call them compounds now. Truly, they are the ruling class.”
When asked about the column by the Montgomery Advertiser, Sutton repeated his call, saying that “if we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out DC, we’d all been better off.”
Sutton, who has worked at the Democrat-Reporter since 1964, suggested lynching.
“We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them,” he said.
Sutton defended himself by insisting he was “not calling for the lynchings of Americans. These are socialist-communists we’re talking about.
“Do you know what socialism and communism is?” he added.
When asked if he recognized the KKK as a racist, violent group, Sutton compared the Klan to the NAACP.
“A violent organization? Well, they didn’t kill but a few people,” he told the Advertiser. “The Klan wasn’t violent until they needed to be.”
US Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and US Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) both called on Sutton to resign.
“OMG! What rock did this guy crawl out from under? This editorial is absolutely disgusting & he should resign -NOW!” Jones tweeted Monday night. “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!”
Sewell also posted a tweet slamming the editorial.
“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,” she wrote. “These comments are deeply offensive and inappropriate, especially in 2019. Mr. Sutton should apologize and resign.”
State Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) said he doesn’t read the Democrat-Reporter, but that Sutton has “been making those kind of racist epithets for a long time.
“Goodloe is just being Goodloe as far as I’m concerned,” he said, adding that he does not take the comments lightly, AL.com reported.
State Rep. A.J. McCampbell (D-Livingston) said he had not heard about the editorial.
“That kind of ignorance is the reason I don’t even subscribe to the paper,” he said.
Chip Brownlee and Mikayla Burns — editor-in-chief and managing editor, respectively, at the Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University’s student-run paper — first spotted the editorial and shared it online Monday.
“As a newspaper editor myself it’s disturbing to see this type of editorial printed,” Brownlee said in an email to the Advertiser.
“Granted, I’m the editor of a student newspaper, but all newspapers should be held to the highest ethical and moral standards. Editorials should be about new ideas, constructive criticism and opinion backed up by facts. To call for the return of domestic terrorism — no matter its form — is counterproductive and wrong. It’s important to welcome and encourage differing opinions, but violence is never right.”
The head of the Alabama Press Association said the state trade association for papers in the state does “not agree with the opinion.”
“However, APA is not a policing agency. We simply have no authority over what our member newspapers publish,” Felicia Mason said.