Heritage and Hate: Constructing Identity in the Raleigh News and Observer's Progressive-Era Coverage of the Ku Klux Klan. Issue 4 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fuller, P. Brooks
• Is Part Of: American journalism. Volume 35:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 444
• Page End: 468
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: Journalism -- United States -- History -- Periodicals; Journalism -- History -- Periodicals; Journalism -- United States -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 071.309
• DOI: 10.1080/08821127.2018.1527633
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0882-1127

Abstract

Abstract : Despite its harms, hate speech is protected under the First Amendment because it constitutes expression of political ideology and group identity. Although this concept is rooted in Progressive Era judicial philosophy, its significance is also evident in Progressive Era coverage of the Ku Klux Klan. Specifically, Ku Klux Klan coverage in the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer under Josephus Daniels from 1898 to 1924 constitutes a case of the partisan press constructing southern white identity across literary, civic, and political domains. Identity politics may have also influenced Daniels's approach to Progressive censorship and transparency efforts. This case underscores links between freedom for hate speech and identity building in the partisan press well before the courts articulated a free-speech philosophy of identity.