Articles Feature

Klan Revelation Was Too Hot — Until Now

by richard05152

Who Knew VIPs in 1920s Denver Were KKK?
Sharing an Honor With Washington, Mandela
Black Press Really Can Help Save White Papers
New Mayor Refused to Meet Editorial Board
‘Asian’ Not Good Shorthand for ‘Asian American’
Latin American Journalists Plead for Vaccine
Conservative Goldberg Leaves ‘Real Sports’
A Boost for Those Who’ve Left Mainstream Media
Hollywood Group Ousts Ex-Leader Over Remarks
Arizona Republic Outlines Diversity Progress

Short Takes

Support Journal-isms

Ku Klux Klan members parade in Denver on May 31, 1926. The parade preceded a convention of klansmen from across the state at the Cotton Mills Stadium in South Denver. (Provided by History Colorado)

Who Knew VIPs in 1920s Denver Were KKK?

More than 60 years ago, a Rocky Mountain News reporter anonymously donated to the state of Colorado two weighty, leather-bound books showing that in 1920s Denver, close to 30,000 of the 107,000 white men living in the city were registered members of the Ku Klux Klan, Kevin Beaty reported last week for Denverite.

Only now are those names being released to a wider public.

The Denver Post was listed as one of those employing those Klan members, along with other federal, state and local institutions in the area.

The state’s historic collection decided to keep the ledgers secret for 50 years, Beaty wrote.

“The folks at the time thought they were too incendiary, too hot, so they decided to seal them until 1990,” Shaun Boyd, History Colorado curator of archives, told Beaty.

“In the ’90s, the museum quietly took the papers out of storage and made them available to researchers. Those who knew where to look could come view the names on microfilm. The books themselves were on display in a public exhibit, sitting behind glass that prevented anyone from taking a closer look. But last summer, in the heat of protests for racial justice, Boyd said she felt moved to publish the ledger online in its entirety.

Dr. Joseph Westbrook and Dr. Clarence Holmes were among the first members of the Boulé in Denver, a fraternal order of African Americans who took active measures against the Klan in the early 20th century. (Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/The Clarence and Fairfax Holmes Papers)

“Museum staff won a federal grant to scan the documents and run them through software that would turn old type-written text into a searchable PDF. This week, they announced the project was complete: The papers are now available for anyone to examine.”

Beaty also wrote, “Among the listed names are two governors, the superintendent of Denver’s mountain park system, Denver’s chief building inspector and Denver’s county clerk. Members’ employers included Denver’s police department and Masonic lodge, district and county courts, the U.S. Mint, the Federal Reserve, Fitzsimons hospital, the Denver Post and the state history museum (History Colorado’s precursor).

“The major takeaway from these documents, History Colorado curator of archives Shaun Boyd told us: White supremacy is inextricably linked with Denver’s history.”

Journal-isms asked Gregory L. Moore (pictured), former Denver Post editor, for his reaction to the disclosure.

“This is a very big story,” Moore messaged Sunday. “I just finished watching the CNN documentary the People v. The Klan and the thing you just can’t fathom is how deeply embedded in the power structure the Klan was — maybe still is.

“But the point is this is a very important snapshot into Denver society in the mid-1920s. I am hoping the media aggressively pores over those records and finds out who those people were and where they stood in Denver society so we can better understand those times and these.

“It’s interesting that a Rocky reporter surrendered the documents. Why and how he or she came into possession of them is also a story. We can’t consign this revelation to history. The names have already been withheld for a half century. For the media it’s important we do what we are uniquely trained to do: tell stories, make connections and help us understand how to view this discovery. Clearly it’s a fascinating story, and it’s an important one, one that threatens to rewrite the history of Denver.”

Beaty’s Denverite story added, “Denver has changed a lot in 100 years, but Boyd said she and her colleagues still needed to take great care in releasing the papers today.

“After they decided to publish [the] ledger, History Colorado gathered community advisors to help them proceed appropriately. . . . Representatives from Black, Jewish, LGBTQ and Catholic communities weighed in, as well as historians versed in the history of hate and discrimination in this state.

Photographing Ku Klux Klan membership ledgers for the Greater Denver area, 1924-1926, in the Digital Imaging Studio at the History Colorado Center. (Provided by Katie Bush, History Colorado)

“There were two reasons for this. First, they wanted to avoid the possibility that publicizing these documents could unintentionally glorify the KKK’s presence in Colorado or re-traumatize communities terrorized by the group. Second, the advisor process fits in with a string of efforts in recent years to improve how the museum speaks to and includes marginalized communities.

“This came into play recently as History Colorado launched a new exhibit about the Sand Creek Massacre [of Native Americans] and when museum staff spoke to us last year about hiring their first curators focused on Chicano and LGBTQ history.

“ ‘I think we have a responsibility to tell the whole story of Colorado history and to talk to communities that, maybe, we haven’t talked to as well in the past,’ Boyd told us.

“For the most part, these community advisors were glad to see the KKK ledger come to light. . . .”

Sharing an Honor With Washington, Mandela

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (pictured), founded by John Adams and John Hancock in 1780 at the beginning of the Republic, named 252 new members Wednesday, including the election of journalists of color deemed to be “exceptionally accomplished” and “advancing the public good.” They join such exalted figures as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Nelson Mandela and Marian Anderson.

Named in the journalism, media and communications category were:

  • “Maria L. Hinojosa, Futuro Media Group
  • “Perri Klass, New York University
  • “Michele L. Norris, The Washington Post; The Race Card Project
  • “Jorge G. Ramos Ávalos, Univision Communications, Inc.
  • “Kara Swisher, Vox Media, Inc.
  • “Ginger L. Thompson, ProPublica
  • “Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker”

Others include civil rights activist and math literacy pioneer Robert Moses, The Algebra Project; media entrepreneur and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, Harpo, Inc.; Oprah Winfrey Network; and neurosurgeon and medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, CNN; Emory University.

“While the founders did not anticipate a year with a historic pandemic, overdue racial reckoning, and political strife, the purpose of electing new members is more compelling than ever,” the academy said in its statement.

“The 2021 election provides an opportunity to recognize extraordinary people who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges, create meaning through art, and contribute to the common good from every field, discipline, and profession. . . .”

The Academy has elected more than 13,500 members since its founding in 1780.

The News Media Alliance is touting collaborations to its more than 2,000 news organization members.

Black Press Really Can Help Save White Papers

“Can the Black Press Help Save White Newspapers?” asked a headline in this column last September, reporting on a collaboration between the Dallas Morning News and the Texas Metro News, a part of the Black press, as a possible model for mainstream newspapers who wish to increase their coverage of communities of color.

Now the News Media Alliance, the association of newspaper publishers, has issued such a new collaboration guide for its more than 2,000 news organization members.

“With many local newsrooms trying to do more with less these days, looking outside your newsroom to partner with other local news publications can have the effect of having a larger, more diverse staff that can cover more topics, more areas of your region, and be more representative of your community,” the alliance says.

“In this guide, we will walk you through key questions to ask when considering a partnership, as well as ideas and tips for success and best practices for cross-newsroom collaboration.

“We will also profile a successful partnership between the newsrooms at The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News, outlining how they did it, from the formal arrangement to working together on stories, events and more. . . .”

Tishaura Jones is inaugurated Tuesday as mayor of St. Louis (Credit: City of St. Louis)

New Mayor Refused to Meet Editorial Board

Tishaura Jones (pictured) was sworn in Tuesday as the first African American woman to become mayor of St. Louis, and she won the election in part by campaigning against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board.

“Since 2016, this editorial board has done nothing but use its pen, ink, and declining readership to try to disparage my reputation as a public servant of the city I love and serve,” Jones, the city treasurer, wrote in July in declining an invitation to meet with the board.

When Jones ran in 2017 and lost narrowly, she said the Post-Dispatch was part of “the systemic racism that pervades almost every public and private institution”

She noted that the then-five member editorial board had no African Americans, though the city was 49.2 percent Black or African American in the 2010 census.

The newspaper endorsed Alderman Antonio French (pictured), who received only 15.31 percent of the vote, but now sits on the now three-member editorial board.

However, city spokesman Nick Dunne told Journal-isms by telephone, there remains a “level of misogyny” there. Still, the new mayor is “open to having a conversation with them,” Dunne said.

The Post-Dispatch editorialized Tuesday that Jones deserved a honeymoon. “Jones is the mayor, and skeptics must give her a chance to demonstrate that her ideas and leadership style can yield positive results. As she acknowledged, problems that took decades to create won’t be solved in a few days or months,” the editorial said.

‘Asian’ Not Good Shorthand for ‘Asian American’

“Asian, Pacific Islander, AAPI, Stop AAPI Hate and anti-Asian sentiment have all been added to the Stylebook,” the Associated Press announced Friday.

“AP’s previous entry on Asian American now adds that Pacific Islanders should not be described as Asian Americans, Asians or of Asian descent; and that Asian should not be used as shorthand for Asian American when possible.”

Michelle Ye Hee Lee, president of the Asian American Journalists Association, told Kristen Hare of the Poynter Institute, “We hope that these efforts to improve media coverage of AAPI communities help bring more visibility to the experiences of our communities and our journalists.”

Latin American Journalists Plead for Vaccine

 “In other latitudes, countries such as Zimbabwe and Indonesia included journalists among the priority groups to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” Paola Nalvarte reported Tuesday for LatAm Journalism Review. “Which countries in Latin America recognize journalists as essential workers and include them in vaccination plans as at-risk groups? Just El Salvador, so far.

” ‘We will vaccinate all journalists starting this Tuesday [April 20],’ said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele via Twitter. The leader said in a later tweet that he includes journalists as second-line workers, for covering hospitals, vaccination centers, etc.

“A Salvadoran parliamentarian stressed that journalists ‘inconvenient’ to the government will also receive the vaccine.

“Journalistic associations in Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, among other countries in the region, have been asking their governments to recognize journalism as a necessary profession for information during the pandemic, and the danger media workers face every day when taking to the streets to report on COVID-19.

“Latin America is the most deadly region for journalists in terms of deaths caused by COVID-19. . . .”

Conservative Goldberg Leaves ‘Real Sports’

“In a move that many may have predicted but has largely gone unreported, unnoticed, and somewhat unexplained, 14-time Emmy award winner Bernard Goldberg (pictured, with Donald Trump) has left HBO’s Real Sports,” Ben Koo reported Monday for Awful Announcing.

Koo cited a “growing rift of the show’s progressive editorial direction and Goldberg’s dissenting conservative politics.”

Goldberg weighed in on athletes taking political positions and on transgender issues. “A few days ago, I tuned into a hockey playoff game and, before the game started, there was a ceremony that featured a player who said: ‘Racism is everywhere,’ ” he wrote for The Hill.

“I don’t believe racism is everywhere. I don’t believe it’s systemic. I don’t believe it’s in the DNA of our country. And I didn’t tune into the game to get a lecture about how racist America is. So I changed the channel.”

Koo wrote, “Not long after Goldberg’s The Hill column (which went largely unnoticed), Real Sports was set to air a segment on transgender athletes manned by Goldberg. However, the segment never aired after being abruptly pulled, with all mentions and teasers of the segment scrubbed from the internet.”

A Boost for Those Who’ve Left Mainstream Media

In a shot in the arm for journalists who have left their perches in mainstream media, the Scripps Howard Foundation Wednesday named Derrick Z. Jackson (pictured), former Boston Globe op-ed columnist, as winner of its Scripps Howard Award for opinion writing.

Jackson won for a collection of columns called “Tried to Warn You.” “In his blog commentary for the Union of Concerned Scientists and Grist.org, Jackson drew stark attention to the dilatory effects caused by the politicization of COVID-19, calling out national leaders for ignoring the virus’ impact on essential workers who are often, in large numbers, people of color, “the foundation said.

“Judges’ comments: ‘Derrick Jackson writes with the aplomb of one heavily armed intellectually and the vigor of a man determined to use his voice to right wrongs. His research and sourcing provide credibility, and his eloquent writing makes his work moving and memorable. “

Among other winners, “The New York Times Visual Investigations Team was selected as this year’s Impact Award winner for the broad impact its work had on the national consciousness and conversation about systemic racism. The team’s investigative work led to police reforms, influenced court cases and enhanced public understanding of the incidents that prompted outrage and demonstrations across the United States.”

The Star Tribune in Minneapolis won for “Excellence in Coverage of Breaking News” for “The Killing of George Floyd,” “a local news story that quickly became the global epicenter for America’s long struggle with racial inequality and injustice.”

Hollywood Group Ousts Ex-Leader Over Remarks

“A former president of the organization that hosts the Golden Globes has been dropped from the group’s board after sending an email that called Black Lives Matter a ‘hate movement,‘ ” the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association board said in an email Tuesday that Phil Berk is no longer a member of the organization. The decision comes hours after NBC — which telecasts the Globes — condemned Berk’s actions and called for his ‘immediate expulsion.’

“The show’s producer, dick clark productions, also demanded for Berk’s removal.

Berk, an eight-term association president, fell under heavy scrutiny after he sent an email Sunday criticizing Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

The email “touched off a firestorm among many of the organization’s members,” Stacy Perman reported April 18 for the Los Angeles Times.

“The email lands at a sensitive time for the HFPA, which has come under pressure for not having any Black members as well as allegations of ethical and financial lapses raised in a Times investigation into the group,” Perman continued.

At a March 18 meeting, representatives of the National Association of Black Journalists “encouraged the organization to identify Black journalists and Black publications in places like the Caribbean and Africa and U.S. locations like Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York to recruit more diverse members with relevant experience,” NABJ said.

Arizona Republic Outlines Diversity Progress

“More than three-quarters of new hires over the past year have been journalists of color, and eight of 13 are women – chasing the footsteps of Republic newsroom pioneers like Maggie Savoy, Venita Hawthorne James, Pam Johnson, Jennifer Dokes and Nicole Carroll,” Greg Burton (pictured), executive editor of The Arizona Republic, told readers on April 19.

“Our goal is to match a community that is 44% people of color. We’re not there yet, but we’re making progress, and doing so while hiring the most skilled and promising journalists on the job market.

Burton also wrote, “We organized two community-advisory groups and a series of discussions with Black and Latino audiences with a mission to build knowledge, trust and empathy. This year, with the help of The Republic’s Diversity Committee, our goal is to add community-advisory groups for Asian, Native American and LGBTQ+ audiences. . . .

“To meet the minds of an evolving Arizona, The Republic added two full-time opinion and culture columnists and expanded our Editorial Board so that we now have members from the Black, Asian and Latino communities and a balance of members overall that truly reflects our community of readers – and potential readers. Along with myself, the board includes Abe Kwok, Joanna Allhands, Elvia Díaz, Greg Moore and Robert Robb, with Phil Boas leading the way. . . .”

The Republic is a Gannett property. Last August, Gannett announced that the company said its personnel would mirror the nation’s population of women and BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] by 2025. Gannett also plans to increase by 30% the share of BIPOC in leadership positions, as Nathan Bomey reported then for USA Today.

Short Takes

“The memorial service for NABJ Co-Founder Paul Brock will be held April 26, 2021, at 1 p.m. Eastern,” the National Association of Black Journalists announced. “To stream the service live, go to www.largocc.org. On the top site menu bar, click on the highlighted link that reads, ‘Watch Live On Sundays,’ to start streaming.”
  • Leroy Chapman (pictured), deputy managing editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2015, has been promoted to managing editor, Editor Kevin Riley announced Tuesday. Monica R. Richardson, who was senior managing editor of the AJC, joined the Miami Herald Jan. 1 as its top editor. Chapman will be “overseeing reporting teams that cover state and local politics, public safety and courts, K-12 schools and colleges and other local and hyperlocal news, . . .” Riley said in his note to the staff. “He has provided mature guidance and the steady hand required as we’ve navigated the pandemic and the demands of an unrelenting news cycle. And he stepped up to handle other key duties when Monica Richardson left us. . . .” In 2017, Chapman wrote about his father, Leroy Chapman Sr., for the Greenville (S.C.) News.

ABC Stations Lay Big Bet On Race, Culture Reporting from TVNewsCheck on Vimeo.

  • “TVNewsCheck Editor Michael Depp talks with Mariel Myers, Nzinga Blake and Porsha Grant, executive producers of ABC Owned Television Stations’ new race and culture reporting team, about the project’s bold goals to bring depth and context to reporting on underrepresented communities across the group’s eight stations.”
  • Former CNN executive S. Mitra Kalita (pictured), an outspoken diversity media advocate, surprised some last year when she left her job as senior vice president at CNN Digital to start Epicenter-NYC, a media company based in Queens, N.Y., founded during the pandemic to help neighbors navigate COVID-19. The organization has booked more than 4,600 COVID vaccine appointments for people in New York and beyond, Mia Sato of MIT Technology Review reported Wednesday. Sato conducted a q-and-a with Kalita.
  • Veteran journalist and media executive Anne Vasquez (pictured) will be EdSource’s next executive director, the multi-media education platform for California said Wednesday. Vasquez is EdSource’s director of content and strategic initiatives and most recently was senior vice president of strategic initiatives and chief digital officer at Tribune Publishing. Before that, Vasquez was managing editor of the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and served on the boards of the American Society of News Editors, now known as the News Leaders Association, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
  • Black Public Media said it awarded its highest-ever total funding to five teams competing at its PitchBLACK Forum, an interactive pitching competition before public television and commercial distributors and funders. “The creatives received $410,000 in funding for their productions at the PitchBLACK Awards,” the organization announced April 12. “Awarded $100,000 each were feature documentaries Higher 15, by Ameha Molla and Rajal Pitroda (about a former Ethiopian revolutionary, turned lead witness in an FBI investigation against his murderous prison guard in war torn Addis Ababa); and Storming Caesars Palace, by Hazel Gurland-Pooler and Naz Habtezghi (about Ruby Duncan, a co-founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization, who launched an extraordinary grassroots movement for economic justice, a universal basic income and Black women’s empowerment).”
Essence magazine Wednesday debuted its May/June 2021 issue cover, “a striking visual interpretation that juxtaposes the challenges and triumphs of a community after an unprecedented year of heightened social and political unrest, police brutality, economic and health inequities, COVID-19 and more.” The cover was made as a quilt by contemporary artist Bisa Butler; the quilt was photographed to appear on the cover. “ESSENCE assembled an array of notable voices — from activists, journalists, artists and writers—who shared their perspectives on witnessing history unfold, creating change and being champions for freedom. . . .”
  • Jamelle Bouie (pictured), op-ed columnist for The New York Times, has won the 2021 Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism, the Sidney Hillman Foundation announced. The foundation quoted the hosts of the podcast “Know Your Enemy” when Bouie was their guest: “Today’s political conflicts reflect, to an extraordinary degree, disagreements over the meaning of American history. Jamelle Bouie’s New York Times column is one of the places where these lively debates are most effectively narrated and clarified.”
The Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism has announced its second cohort of 20 media leaders, “who will push for transformation in the news industry and change their organizations by developing resilient strategies, successful products, and sustainable business models.. . .The participants represent Brazil, Finland, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They are Noel Algarín Martínez, Shana Black, Sewell Chan, Cynthia DuBose, Tiff Fehr, Maritza Lizeth Gallego Félix, Daniela Flor, Hillary Frey, Antonia Götsch, Daniel Kempf, Soraya Membreno, Angela Moon, Christian Moser, Amanda Pike, Annika Ruoranen, Gabriel Sama, George Sarpong, Geraldine Sealey, Anna van Koetsveld and Rossalyn Warren.
  • Adrienne Samuels Gibbs has been named director, multicultural content for Medium. A veteran of Ebony, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Boston Globe, among other outlets, she had been deputy editor of Zora magazine, a publication of Medium.
  • “Ninety miles from U.S. shores, another powerful reckoning has been playing out in one of Cuba’s poorest and predominantly Black neighborhoods,” Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago wrote April 16, updated April 19. “Although this movement, too, calls for social and racial justice and inclusion, the unprecedented uprising of people of color on the Caribbean island hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves from Americans — and in particular, from Black Lives Matter activists and supporters. . . . The Afro-Cubans of Havana’s San Isidro neighborhood — putting their lives on the line to openly confront the Cuban government — could use widespread support right now. They’re the flashpoint of an unrelenting and brave pushback against government repression, suffering, and economic strife that often runs along racial lines. . . .”
  • “This month, Nicaragua completes three years of crisis that began on April 18, 2018, when the country was shaken by serious protests,” Marina Estarque reported April 14 for LatAm Journalism Review. The demonstrations, initially against a pension reform, expanded and turned against the authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega, who has held the presidency since 2007. . . . On the anniversary of the demonstrations, LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) spoke with reporters in Nicaragua to find out what it is like to live and work in a climate of fear and repression, in which journalists are arrested, prosecuted and harassed by the police in their homes. At the same time, critical media suffer from government newsprint retention, are shut down or are expropriated. . . .”
  • “The Brazilian Press Association (ABI, for its acronym in Portuguese) and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) decided to take action against what they classify as the judicial harassment of journalists,” Júlio Lubianco reported April 14 for LatAm Journalism Review. “The ABI filed two lawsuits with the Federal Supreme Court to curb the abuse of lawsuits against journalists and media companies. . . . According to a survey by Abraji, since 2002, journalists and journalism companies have been the target of more than 5,000 lawsuits for slander and defamation, charged with paying large damages and removing content. Most of the claimants are politicians. . . .”
  • In Zimbabwe, “Former Herald Editor, Tichaona Zindoga (pictured) has opened up on his tough experience when he was at the helm of the state controlled daily where he claims First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa constantly interfered with his job,” Leopold Munhende reported Tuesday for New Zimbabwe. “He described the experience as ‘uncomfortable, traumatic and bad’. . .”
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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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