NEWSPAPERS DIFFER ON APPROACH TO SLAVE ADS

By: Joe Strupp Will Others Follow The Hartford Courant's Apology?



Jonathan McElvy isn't sure if his newspaper, The Selma (Ala.)
Times-Journal, published ads seeking runaway slaves some 150 years
ago. But if it did, he'd just as soon leave it in the past.



'The more we keep harping on history, the tougher it is to get past it,' said
McElvy, 25, an Alabama native and managing editor of the 8,200-circulation
daily paper that dates back to 1827. 'I don't know if it would do any good to
bring it up again.'



McElvy's comments were among many from newspaper veterans and history
buffs who reacted strongly - both for and against - last week's
decision by The Hartford (Conn.) Courant to publicly apologize
for its pre-Civil War practice of advertising for the return of slaves. The apology
was contained in a Page One story.



While some black leaders and historians praised the move as a way to heal
racial tensions, other observers said the issue should not matter more than a
century after slavery was abolished. 'Where does it stop?' said McElvy. 'We
live in a community that is known for civil-rights struggles and I don't know if
that would help right now.'



William Marimow, managing editor of The (Baltimore) Sun,
which also acknowledged publishing runaway slave ads, agreed. He said efforts
to analyze today's racial issues are more important than digging up the past. 'I
think what we are today is what counts,' said Marimow. 'Slavery was an
absolute atrocity. But that happened long before any of us were born.'



But not everyone shares that view. Joseph Moniz, a black attorney in Hartford,
said such acknowledgments are key to addressing today's racial issues. 'If you
look around, you can see what slavery caused, and still causes,' he said. 'We
need to address the effects of slavery today.'



The issue arose in Hartford after Aetna Inc., a local insurance company,
apologized publicly in March for insuring slaves as property. The apology
followed New York attorney Deadria Farmer-Paellmann's request for the
company to pay restitution to the descendants of slaves.



Lou Golden, the Courant's vice president and deputy publisher, said
reporters working on the Aetna story and several follow-up articles were asked
by a source if the Courant would acknowledge its own slavery
connections in its reporting. After discussions with editors, reporters Jesse
Leavenworth and Kevin Canfield were assigned to research the
Courant's history and wrote a lengthy account that ran July 4. Their
story reported that the Courant, which has published since 1764,
regularly ran ads seeking the return of slaves until Connecticut outlawed slavery
in 1848.



'As we thought about it, it was obvious, even though no one here has a
connection to anyone who ran the paper in those days,' said Golden. 'We are
responsible for this institution and what it has done in the past.'



The Courant story also included an apology from the paper's spokesman
Ken DeLisa, who was quoted saying the paper apologized 'for any involvement
by our predecessors ? in the terrible practice of buying and selling human
beings.'



'I thought it was an important issue to explore,' said Canfield. 'We weren't
looking for an apology, but I thought it was handled well.' Assistant Managing
Editor Jenifer Frank, who oversaw the stories' editing, said an apology was not
planned. 'But I don't think it was inappropriate,' she said.



Maureen Croteau, head of the University of Connecticut journalism department
and a former Courant employee, said she understood why an apology
was printed, but did not believe it was necessary. 'I don't think it means very
much to apologize for someone who has been dead for 100 years,' she said.



So what does this mean for the small handful of newspapers, such as the
New York Post, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, or
The Times of Shreveport, La., that date back to slavery days and likely
published runaway slave ads?



For most, this issue is a moot point.



'I would think there would be more important issues of a racial nature, such as
minority hiring or using minority vendors,' said Bob Faricy, marketing
development director for The Times, which has published since 1839. 'I
don't see us going back to look at it.'



Jim Amoss, editor of The Times-Picayune - which acknowledged
its own history of running slave ads in a lengthy 1993 series on race, but did not
apologize - said each newspaper must make its own decision and added,
'I find it hard to believe that any paper published before the Civil War would
not have run such ads.'





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Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for
Editor & Publisher magazine.








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