The ''Bogalusa Daily Times'', or simply ''The Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in

Bogalusa, Louisiana Bogalusa ( ) is a city in Washington Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,232 at the 2010 census. In th2020 censusthe city reported a population of 10,659. It is the principal city of the Bogalusa Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...

covering all of

Washington Parish Washington Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Washington''; ) is a parish located in the interior southeast corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana, one of the Florida Parishes. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,463. Its parish seat is ...

and northern St. Tammany Parish. Despite their name, it is now a

weekly newspaper Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...

. During the Civil rights movement, the publication faced repeated acts of intimidation from the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

History

Newspaper holder in bogalusa daily news 01

The paper started in 1927 and, in the 1940s,

Wick Communications Wick Communications (formerly known as Wick Newspaper Group) is a family-owned media company with 18 newspapers in 10 states. They also publish websites and other specialty publications. The home offices are in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and it has ne ...

purchased the publication. In 2013, Wick began closing their Louisiana newspapers. The next year, Wick sold both the ''Daily News'' and the ''

LaPlace L'Observateur Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French polymath, a scholar whose work has been instrumental in the fields of physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and philosophy. He summariz ...

'' to the Carpenter Media Group, a division of

Boone Newspapers Boone Newspapers, Incorporated (BNI) is the parent company of a publishing business that includes dozens of newspapers as well as magazines, other published materials, and internet properties in the United States. It is a private company and owns ...

In 2023, the paper switched to a weekly format to reduce costs and focus on their website, but did not change their name.

Civil Rights era

In the 1960s, both the nonviolent

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE) and the armed

Deacons for Defense and Justice The Deacons for Defense and Justice was a Black American self-defense group founded in November 1964, during the civil rights era in the United States, in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana. On February 21, 1965—the day of Malcolm X's assassi ...

began pushing to end

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

in Bogalusa. The local Ku Klux Klan strongly opposed these efforts. That struggle turned violent leading to the killings of two African Americans, Oneal Moore and Clarence Triggs. Under the leadership of editor

Lou Major Lou may refer to: __NOTOC__ Personal name * Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Lou (German singer) *Lou (French singer) * Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China * Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most common ...

, the ''Daily News'' ran editorials against the secrecy of the Klan in 1964. The paper also stopped publishing their African-American edition and began providing the same version of their publication to all subscribers. In response, the KKK began anonymously distributing the ''Midnight Mail'', a racist newsletter, to compete with their coverage. The group then burned a cross at the downtown newspaper offices. On four occasions, the KKK also burned crosses at the home of editor who used one of them to roast marshmallows. In 2021, Major published an autobiography of his experiences running the paper despite the Klan.

References

{{Boone Newspapers Daily News 1927 establishments in Louisiana Newspapers established in 1927 Newspapers published in Louisiana Weekly newspapers published in the United States Washington Parish, Louisiana Boone Newspapers

History

Civil Rights era

See also

References