{{short description|Newspaper in Selma, Alabama, U.S.}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = Selma Times-Journal | image = Selma December 2018 28 (Selma Times-Journal).jpg | caption = ''Selma Times-Journal'' building | type = Weekly newspaper | format = | founded = 1827 | ceased_publication = | price = | owners = Boone Newspapers Inc. | publisher = | editor = James Jones | language = English | circulation = | headquarters = | ISSN = | oclc = 1080316481 | website = {{URL|selmatimesjournal.com}} }}
The '''''Selma Times-Journal,''''' is a weekly newspaper located in Selma, Alabama. It publishes every Wednesday.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 1, 2025 |title=Selma Times-Journal transitioning to a weekly publication |url=https://www.selmatimesjournal.com/news/selma-times-journal-transitioning-to-a-weekly-publication-4ca6d645 |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=The Selma Times-Journal |language=en}}</ref> It is owned by Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based Boone Newspapers Inc.
==History== The paper was founded as the '''''Selma Courier''''' on November 2, 1827, by Thomas Jefferson Frow.<ref name="Courier">[http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2010/11/12/from-courier-to-times-journal/ From Courier to Times-Journal], ''Selma Times-Journal'' (November 12, 2010).</ref> The newspaper was later known by various names, including the ''Selma Free Press'', ''Selma Reporter'', and ''Selma Daily News''. During the American Civil War, the newspaper's press was torched by Union Army troops following the Battle of Selma (see Selma, Alabama in the American Civil War).<ref name="Courier"/> The paper then merged with the weekly ''Selma Messenger'' to form the ''Times Messenger''. The paper then merged with the ''Selma Argus'' (becoming the ''Times-Argus''), and then with the ''Selma Evening Mail'' (becoming the ''Selma Times''). In 1889, the paper changed its name to the ''Morning Times''.<ref name="Courier"/> In 1914, Frazier Titus Raiford purchased the ''Selma Times'', and on March 1, 1920, the paper merged with the ''Selma Journal'' to become the ''Selma Times-Journal''.<ref>Walter M. Jackson, ''The Story of Selma'' (1954), p. 473-74.</ref> Frazier Titus Raiford and his wife Mary Howard Raiford served as editors and publishers until Frazier died in 1936. Mary Raiford—Alabama's only female publisher—then ran the paper by herself for 23 years.<ref>Alston Fitts, ''Selma: A Bicentennial History'' (University of Alabama Press, 2017), pp. 178-79.</ref>
In 1923, the paper editorialized against the Ku Klux Klan, writing, "Selma has no room within her confines for that ugly, malevolent institution of the devil known as Ku Kluxism."<ref>Alston Fitts, ''Selma: A Bicentennial History'' (University of Alabama Press, 2017), pp. 181-82.</ref> In the later 1920s, the paper denounced James Thomas Heflin and his anti-Catholic demagoguery. In the 1930 election for governor, the paper supported the candidacy of Judge Benjamin M. Miller, "a noted foe of lynching and the Klan" and a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith.<ref>Alston Fitts, ''Selma: A Bicentennial History'' (University of Alabama Press, 2017), p. 185.</ref>
During the civil rights movement, the ''Times-Journal'' attempted to provide balanced reporting, unlike many other Southern newspapers of the era. Nevertheless, the paper did publish "advertisements from the local White Citizens' Councils that included veiled threats and ... other advertisements purportedly showing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a communist training session."<ref>Barbara Harris Combs, ''From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom'' (Routledge, 2014), p. 173.</ref> The paper provided meaningful coverage of the Selma to Montgomery marches. Journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, in their book ''The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation'', wrote: "Selma had something most other venues of civil rights activity did not: a local newspaper that visiting reporters could depend on. The ''Selma Times-Journal'' saw the historic importance of the story and took its responsibility seriously, providing detailed accounts that reporters found reliable."<ref>Gene Roberts & Hank Klibanoff, ''The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation'' (Knopf, 2006), p. 389.</ref>
Kathryn Tucker Windham, a writer and storyteller, was a journalist and photographer with the ''Times-Journal'' in the mid-20th century, writing the column "Around our House" from 1950 to 1966.<ref>Amalia K. Amaki & Priscilla N. Davis, ''Tuscaloosa'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), p. 21.</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{official website|1=http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/}} * {{Newseum front page|AL_ST}}
{{Boone Newspapers}}
Category:Selma, Alabama Category:Newspapers published in Alabama Category:Newspapers established in 1827 Category:Daily newspapers published in the United States Category:1827 establishments in Alabama Category:Boone Newspapers