The ''Selma Times-Journal'' is a five-day-a-week newspaper located in

Selma, Alabama Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About ...

. It publishes every day of the week except Sunday and Monday. The Saturday paper is called the "Weekend Edition." It is owned by

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

-based Boone Newspapers Inc.

History

The paper was founded as the ''Selma Courier'' on November 2, 1827, by Thomas Jefferson Frow.From Courier to Times-Journal
''Selma Times-Journal'' (November 12, 2010). The newspaper was later known by various names, including the ''Selma Free Press'', ''Selma Reporter'', and ''Selma Daily News''. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the newspaper's press was torched by

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

troops following the

Battle of Selma The Battle of Selma, Alabama (April 2, 1865), formed part of the Union campaign through Alabama and Georgia, known as Wilson's Raid, in the final full month of the American Civil War. Union Army forces under Major General James H. Wilson, tot ...

(see

Selma, Alabama in the American Civil War Selma, Alabama, during the American Civil War was one of the South's main military manufacturing centers, producing tons of supplies and munitions, and turning out Confederate warships. The Selma Ordnance and Naval Foundry complex included a naval ...

). The paper then merged with the weekly ''Selma Messenger'' to form the ''Times Messenger''. The paper then merged with the ''Selma Argus'' (becoming the ''Times-Argus''), and then with the ''Selma Evening Mail'' (becoming the ''Selma Times''). In 1889, the paper changed its name to the ''Morning Times''. In 1914, Frazier Titus Raiford purchased the ''Selma Times'', and on March 1, 1920, the paper merged with the ''Selma Journal'' to become the ''Selma Times-Journal''. Frazier Titus Raiford and his wife Mary Howard Raiford served as editors and publishers until Frazier died in 1936. Mary Raiford—Alabama's only female publisher—then ran the paper by herself for 23 years. In 1923, the paper editorialized against the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, writing, "Selma has no room within her confines for that ugly, malevolent institution of the devil known as Ku Kluxism." In the later 1920s, the paper denounced

James Thomas Heflin James Thomas Heflin (April 9, 1869 – April 22, 1951), nicknamed "Cotton Tom", was an American politician who served as a United States representative and United States senator from Alabama. Early life Born in Louina, Alabama, he attended t ...

and his

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestantism, Protestant states, ...

demagoguery. In the 1930 election for governor, the paper supported the candidacy of Judge Benjamin M. Miller, "a noted foe of

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

and the Klan" and a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

. During the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, the ''Times-Journal'' attempted to provide balanced reporting, unlike many other Southern newspapers of the era. Nevertheless, the paper did publish "advertisements from the local

White Citizens' Council The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash a ...

s that included veiled threats and ... other advertisements purportedly showing Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

at a communist training session." The paper provided meaningful coverage of the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...

. Journalists Gene Roberts and

Hank Klibanoff Hank Klibanoff (born March 26, 1949 in Florence, Alabama) is an American journalist, now a professor at Emory University. He and Gene Roberts won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History for the book '' The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Str ...

, in their book '' The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation'', wrote: "Selma had something most other venues of civil rights activity did not: a local newspaper that visiting reporters could depend on. The ''Selma Times-Journal'' saw the historic importance of the story and took its responsibility seriously, providing detailed accounts that reporters found reliable."

Kathryn Tucker Windham Kathryn Tucker Windham (née Tucker, June 2, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American storyteller, author, photographer, folklorist, and journalist. She was born in Selma, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Thomasville. Tucker got her first writin ...

, a writer and storyteller, was a journalist and photographer with the ''Times-Journal'' in the mid-20th century, writing the column "Around our House" from 1950 to 1966.Amalia K. Amaki & Priscilla N. Davis, ''Tuscaloosa'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), p. 21.

Awards

2018 Better Newspaper Contest - Alabama Press Association

Notes

External links

* * {{Boone Newspapers Selma, Alabama Newspapers published in Alabama Publications established in 1827 Daily newspapers published in the United States 1827 establishments in Alabama