This is a classic example of better late than never. A Mississippi daily newspaper, the Meridian Star, has just apologised for its past coverage of civil rights issues.
Just two days before Barack Obama's inauguration as president, and the day before the annual Martin Luther King holiday, the paper carried an editorial, We honour and we apologise, that says:
"It is also important that we not forget our past failings... There was a time when this newspaper – and many others across the south - acted with gross neglect by largely ignoring the unfairness of segregated schools, buses, restaurants, washrooms, theaters and other public places.
"We did it through omission, by not recording for our readers many of the most important civil rights activities that happened in our midst, including protests and sit-ins. That was wrong. We should have loudly protested segregation and the efforts to block voter registration of black East Mississippians."
And the editorial in the Star, owned by the Alabama-based Community Newspaper Holdings, concludes:
"Current management understands while we can't go back and undo some past wrongs, we can offer our sincere apology - and promise never again to neglect our responsibility to inform you, our readers, about the human rights and dignity every individual is entitled to in America - no matter their religion, their ethnic background or the color of their skin."
Editor Fredie Carmichael has also written a front page story that finally tells the paper's 16,000 buyers about James Chaney, the civil rights worker murdered in 1964 who hailed from Meridian. (Via E&P)
