Crusades and journalists: the Klan fight at full strength, the Pulitzer test, the bylines, the contraction

1917–2019 · THE PAPERS AS ACTORS

The crusade this ground actually has is the Klan fight, and both papers and the county's history are in it: the Tribune's front page of 17 December 1922 already headlines it — "Threat of Ku Klux Grows" — and F. A. Miller's honors citation states the editorial course plainly: he "vehemently fought issues such as the Ku Klux Klan in 1924 with many articles that attested to his courage and independence." The fight came to the street on 17 May 1924, when the Klan paraded and rallied in South Bend and some 500 Notre Dame students confronted Klansmen downtown at Michigan and Wayne; the Klan's own organ in Indiana was the Fiery Cross, so the crusade was also a newspaper war, the dailies against the hooded press — the whole told in Todd Tucker's Notre Dame vs. The Klan. The suffrage fight ran on the same front pages a few years earlier (the News-Times' May and July 1917 mayoral-candidacy headlines are dug whole in the Women's History addendum, row #675), which is the pattern of this ground: the papers were the arena, not the spectators. The Pulitzer test: no Pulitzer Prize for the Tribune, the News-Times or the Enterprise was found in any record searched — TESTED NEGATIVE, consistent with this build's awards record (no Osceola holder) — and no substitute prize is dressed up as its equivalent. The journalists: Dorothea Kahn, one of the first women reporters to earn a byline in the Tribune, edited its women's pages and helped launch its radio station (row #674); Edgar Stoll edited the Times in 1905, in a News-Times line the History Museum's podcast traces for the careers it carried. The contraction, as the crusade's long tail: 1938, the News-Times closes and the fight for the city's news ends by attrition; 2019, the Tribune leaves the Tribune Building after 98 years, its ownership passes out of the family that fought the Klan to Gannett, and its printing leaves the state; the Enterprise, the smaller carrier, survives as a weekly with its film run ending in 2019. The papers that crusaded are now a network daily printed in Peoria and a hometown weekly — which is the honest end of the row.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, front page, 17 Dec. 1922 — "Threat of Ku Klux Grows" (Notre Dame News, RESIST! exhibit); Indiana University Honors — F. A. Miller "vehemently fought … the Ku Klux Klan in 1924"; the 17 May 1924 South Bend rally and the Notre Dame students' confrontation (Michigan & Wayne); the Fiery Cross as the Indiana Klan's paper; Tucker, Notre Dame vs. The Klan.
2. Pulitzer searches run for this row against the Tribune, News-Times and Enterprise records — none found; printed as tested negative, consistent with Awards & Honors.
3. The Tribune's biographical tradition — Dorothea Kahn, among the first women to earn a Tribune byline, editor of its women's pages, a hand in launching its station. The History Museum, "A Bend in Time" — Edgar Stoll, editor of the Times in 1905, and the News-Times' journalistic line.
4. The contraction record — News-Times closure 27 Dec. 1938; Tribune Building vacated November 2019 after 98 years; GateHouse/Gannett sale 2019, printing to Peoria; Newspapers & Media — the Enterprise's MPHPL film run ending 2019.