The Black Commentator - Freedom Rider: No Civil Rights in Kentucky - Issue 100 - 1 views
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The city’s two daily newspapers, the Herald and the Leader, worked hand in hand with respected pillars of the community and decided to ignore the revolution. The press took their orders from the powerful and didn’t report one of the biggest news stories in American history. Lexington had demonstrations, sit-ins and other protests, but the papers didn’t acknowledge their complicity in telling a lie until earlier this month.
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The white citizenry of Lexington decided that pretense was preferable to the truth and chose not to point out the elephant in the living room. “Good” white people like Fred Wachs, general manager and publisher of both newspapers, said they wanted change, but didn’t think that anyone demanding it was worthy of an expenditure of newsprint.
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The godfathers of Lexington told people where they could and could not live, and could and could not work, and could and could not go to school and yet were not labeled rabble rousers. That honor fell on those who risked death, injury and loss of livelihood to demand a just society.
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