The editor of the Kansas City Star has offered “a long overdue apology” on behalf of the newspaper for its coverage of the black community throughout its 140-year history.
In a letter to readers published in Sunday’s edition, Star President and Editor Mike Fannin announced a series of articles examining “the historic role we have played, through both action and inaction, in shaping and misshaping Kansas City’s landscape.”
“I feel it to be my moral obligation to express what is in the hearts and minds of the leadership and staff of an organization that is nearly as old as the city it loves and covers: We are sorry.”
“It’s time that we own our history,” Fannin continued. “It is well past time for an apology, acknowledging, as we do so, that the sins of our past still reverberate today.”
A long overdue apology from @KCStar today: For much of its early history — through sins of commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. A six-part series. https://t.co/9z4zvD0zUV
— Mike Fannin (@kcnewsfan) December 20, 2020
Fannin said that the Star “has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region.” However, he conceded that the publication had “disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians,” “reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining,” and “robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition,” especially in its early years.
A team of reporters searched the archives of The Star and The Kansas City Times, which was once its sister paper. They compared reports to coverage of the same events by “the Black press,” finding both The Star and Times had “overlooked or underplayed” many “significant milestones of Black life.”
As Mr. Fannin wrote:
Reporters were frequently sickened by what they found – decades of coverage that depicted Black Kansas Citians as criminals living in a crime-laden world. They felt shame at what was missing: the achievements, aspirations and milestones of an entire population routinely overlooked, as if Black people were invisible. …
Like most metro newspapers of the early to mid-20th century, The Star was a white newspaper produced by white reporters and editors for white readers and advertisers. Having The Star or Times thrown in your driveway was a family tradition, passed down to sons and daughters.
But not in Black families. Their children grew up with little hope of ever being mentioned in the city’s largest and most influential newspapers, unless they got in trouble. Negative portrayals of Black Kansas Citians buttressed stereotypes and played a role in keeping the city divided. …
But white businessman J.C. Nichols got plenty of ink. His advertisements promoting segregated communities ran prominently in The Star and Times. Nichols, who developed the Country Club Plaza, was a protégé of The Star’s founder, William Rockhill Nelson, who enthusiastically supported his effort.
Fannin went on to say that The Star has already taken steps to address institutional racism within the publication, such as recently hiring an editor “to focus on race and equity issues” and prioritizing diversity hiring in the newsroom.
“In the weeks ahead, we will be testing ways to make content that’s focused on stories, issues and people in our diverse communities free to readers in specific Kansas City ZIP codes we have too often failed to serve,” he wrote.
"We are grateful for how far we’ve come. We are humbled by how far we still have to go."
This morning, @KCStar publishes a six-part series investigating our own racist history. First, a letter to readers from @kcnewsfan https://t.co/hYbfvOI8vq
— Allison Kite (@Allie_Kite) December 20, 2020
“It still pains me personally to know that in The Star’s monopolistic heyday – when it had the biggest media platform in the region – the paper did little to unify the city or recognize the inherent rights of all Kansas Citians,” Fannin continued. “But our history doesn’t have to own us.”
“We are grateful for how far we’ve come. We are humbled by how far we still have to go.”