Nobody Said That Good Journalism is Easy
Photo: The Lincoln County Times, Brookhaven, Mississippi.
Last month I wrote something of a Father's Day tribute and mentioned that my father's side of the family had come to California from Mississippi after my father wrote an article for The Lincoln County Times around the year 1920 about seeing a black man being dragged down the middle of Main Street chained to the back of a pickup truck. I wanted to share these pictures from his scrapbook.
Photo: The Klan operated openly down south in those days.There were threats made against the family, and he was attacked one night while leaving a phone booth by a man with a knife. He survived because he was an amateur boxer at the time, though he carried scars on his arms the rest of his life. Later in his life he went to Pearl Harbor and worked as a SCUBA diver repairing ships damaged in the attack that brought us into WWII.
Photo: Frank E. Norton, newspaperman.
Rights don't really mean much unless we exercise them. The right to free speech and to a free press are an essential part of a democracy. Without them there is no freedom of thought. A majority of people kept in the dark is a majority which doesn't really know what to vote for. An informed public makes informed choices.
Support The Fairness Doctrine in media. It's time to take back The Fourth Estate.
Best,
Paul J. Norton
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