https://madamenoire.com/1062608/alabama-paper-hires-black-woman-editor-to-clean-up-the-mess-a-white-man-made/

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Because Black women are always called to fix the problems of “post-racial” America, an Alabama newspaper has replaced a white, editor with a woman of brown hue.

Elecia Dexter, 46, will now serve as the editor and publisher, which the outlet hopes will “move the paper in the right direction,” according to a statement from the publication.

The move signals a stark turn from the national outrage last week caused by an op-ed from the paper’s former editor, Goodloe Sutton. On February 14, Sutton published an astonishing piece, which called for the KKK to rise up and lynch Washington Democrats.

“The Democrat-Reporter has provided the community of West Alabama with quality news for over 140 years and you may have full confidence that Ms. Dexter will continue in this tradition as well as moving the paper into a new direction,” a full statement from the publication read.

Dexter, who has only been on staff for six weeks, holds a degree in speech communication, counseling and human services.

Unfortunately, Dexter’s transition placed her in the middle of the drama, which made her culpable to answer and field most of the anger from Sutton’s piece. The stress caused Dexter to want to step down at one point. But she told The Washington Post that she and Sutton sat down for an open and honest conversation regarding his inflammatory message.

“He took a group that has a lot of negativity associated to it, especially for people like me, of color,” she said.

“There are different ways to communicate you wanted Washington to be cleaned up without using that particular reference,” she continued.

For days politicians and Black Americans called for an apology from the paper and Sutton, noting the harmful rhetoric that still reverberates today, where many Black people and marginalized communities have been targeted by an uptick of hate crimes.

Sutton has remained vigilant and has refused to apologize for his words and the ripple effect that the jarring op-ed caused. However, the paper has been under fire before. In 2017, an anonymous editorial was published in the paper, which referred to the National Anthem protest launched by former NFL player, Colin Kaepernick.

“That’s what black folks were taught to do two hundreds years ago, kneel before a white man…Let them kneel!,” the editorial stated.

Dexter is determined to dive in and help field the paper into a trajectory of positivity and features that harp on the story of every day citizens in the community.

“Family, community looking out for each other—I would like to take a personal component moving forward, so people feel like it’s their paper which it is,” Dexter said.