'Tallahassee Democrat' Apologizes for Coverage on 1956 Bus Boycott

By: Joe Strupp Fifty years after a bus boycott made history in their city, the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat has apologized to readers for the paper's editorial position at the time that its editor acknowledges "clearly took the side of the segregationists."

The apology ran Sunday as part of a 20-page special section on the 1956 boycott, which occurred five months after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in Montgomery, Ala. and protested similar racist policies. In the special section, Executive Editor Bob Gabordi and Publisher Patrick Dorsey co-authored an editor's note that admitted the paper had wrongly taken an editorial stance against the protesters.

"Leaders in that journey toward equality should have been able to expect support in ending segregation from the local daily newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. They could not," the note to readers said, in part. "We not only did not lend a hand, we openly opposed integration, siding firmly with the segregationists. It is inconceivable that a newspaper, an institution that exists freely only because of the Bill of Rights, could be so wrong on civil rights. But we were.

"While the Democrat today is a far different organization from what it was 50 years ago, we have never formally apologized for our actions," the note continued. "Nothing will change history, certainly not a few words. But words are a powerful tool and can have a lasting and healing impact.

"A public apology on behalf of the institution does not undo what was done, but it is a symbol -- and simply the right thing to do. Sometimes words need to be said, and written, for the healing to begin," the note added. "Painful emotions bottled up inside for all these years -- feelings of hurt, betrayal and anger -- need to be addressed. This is the time for that to occur."

Gabordi said the apology had already drawn at least a handful of e-mail and phone responses, both positive and negative. "A lot of people said they were relieved that we did not [name] specific people" who had perpetuated the racist approach, he said. He said leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the local NAACP accepted the apology during a nearby meeting Sunday night.

The editor stressed that the newspaper's coverage of the boycott was considered fair, but the editorial pages and columns, as well as a daily column by the editor, were clearly anti-black. "They told the black community to calm down and behave and thought that integration was an unreasonable demand," he told E&P. "The failure of the paper was not so much in its reporting, even though it quoted predominantly white people. It was in the editorials and columns."

Gabordi realizes that some might find an apology 50 years later by Democrat staffers who were not even at the paper in 1956 to be somewhat meaningless or unnecessary. But he said enough people commented during research for the special section about a lingering contempt for the paper by some longtime residents that an apology was considered worthwhile.

"To change the culture is to confront it," he said.

The entire special section, titled "The Ride to Equality" can be found here.