Don did great work for this paper for many years. We'll miss him. |
I would always wish for eyewitness access to the story itself — in this case, to the miners — to verify for ourselves what had transpired. We didn't have that. But we certainly had more than whisper-down-the-lane verification when the governor confirmed their survival. |
Merely writing about him was unusual, but writing a profile, as if he were a human being, was groundbreaking. |
There was ample opportunity for him to signal that to the editor. It was a total absence of communication by the reporter. |
This is when the northern press started looking at the dehumanization of African Americans in the South. |