Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 33
Two of the Groveland Four were murdered. A mob shot
Ernest Thomas hundreds of times, and a sheriff shot
Samuel Shepherd and claimed he had tried to escape.
Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin each spent more than
a decade in jail. Both have since died. Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis posthumously pardoned the four men in January
2019.40
The paper’s editorial stated: “We’re sorry for The Orlando
Sentinel’s role in this injustice. We’re sorry that the
newspaper at the time did between little and nothing to
seek the truth. We’re sorry that our coverage of the event
and its aftermath lent credibility to the cover-up and the
official, racist narrative.”41
But the paper also asserted that the “Groveland Four
coverage then would not happen today” since “reporters
and editors at the Sentinel are expected to question official
versions of events, not to blindly accept them.”42
The Sentinel’s apology is an important step in making
amends. But the editors seem too certain that the same
thing won’t happen again. Such a claim by any newspaper
should leave readers questioning whether that publication
has truly learned from its history.
The history of media participation in racial terrorism is
terrifying and broad — and it happened not so long ago.
This list of incidents (and the many others we don’t have
space to discuss here) should motivate all communities to
take action to deeply examine the histories of their news
outlets.
The killing of George Floyd has resulted in a nationwide
uprising against systemic racism in our country — and it’s
led to an uprising of Black journalists and other journalists
of color in newsrooms including The Los Angeles Times,
The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Black journalists are challenging
newsroom executives for failing to hire Black journalists,
failing to respect the ones on staff and failing to cover
Black communities.43
University stripped his name from a campus building.45
Meanwhile, in Nashville, Tennessee, protesters brought
down the statue of Edward Carmack that stood in front of
the state capitol.46
During the late 1800s, Carmack served as the editor of
the Memphis Commercial. He went on to represent the
state as a member of the House of Representatives and the
Senate.47
In 1892, he took aim at pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells,
who co-owned the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. His
attack came after she wrote — following the lynching of
three Black men in Memphis — that Black men were often
lynched for consensual relationships with white women.48
“Nobody in this section of the community believes that
old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women,”
Wells wrote. “If Southern men are not careful, a
conclusion might be reached which will be very damaging
to the moral reputation of their women.”49
The Memphis Commercial responded with a threat:
The fact that a black scoundrel is allowed to
live and utter such loathsome and repulsive
calumnies is a volume of evidence as to the
wonderful patience of Southern whites. But
we have had enough of it. There are some
things that the Southern white man will not
tolerate, and the obscene intimations of the
foregoing have brought the writer to the
outermost limit of public patience. We hope
we have said enough.50
Following the publication of Wells’ editorial, a white
mob destroyed the Free Speech and Headlight office.51
But despite Carmack’s racist history, Tennessee plans to
replace his statue.52
The uprisings have also taken aim at statues of
Confederate soldiers, conquistadors, slaveholders and
white supremacists that have served as symbols of racial
terror and white supremacy.44 And several statues that
have been toppled or removed include those of racist
editors who used their publications to incite violence
against Black residents and leaders.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, the descendants of Josephus
Daniels removed his statue while North Carolina State
#MEDIA2070
Edward Ward Carmack statue outside the Nashville
capitol building in Tennessee
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