Tabor-Loris Tribune

The Tabor-Loris Tribune (formerly The Tabor City Tribune) is a weekly[1] newspaper serving Tabor City, North Carolina and Loris, South Carolina in the southeastern United States. It was founded in 1946 by W. Horace Carter. In 1953 two journalists for the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service after a series of articles on the Ku Klux Klan that led to an FBI investigation, resulting in 254 convictions of Klansmen. The paper was renamed the Tabor-Loris Tribune in 2010 and has been cited by other organizations for its local news coverage.

Tabor-Loris Tribune
Owner(s)Atlantic Corporation
Founder(s)W. Horace Carter
EditorDeuce Niven
Founded1946
Headquarters102 Avon Street, Tabor City, NC
Circulation1,200
ISSN2156-2334
Websitewww.tabor-loris.com

History

The Tabor City Tribune was founded in 1946 by W. Horace Carter.[2] The paper published a series of reports and editorials on the Ku Klux Klan starting July 26, 1950, in response to the white supremacist organization's resurgence in the area following World War II.[3] In 1953, days after the Ku Klux Klan launched a recruiting drive with a parade through Tabor City, Carter published "An Editorial: No Excuse for KKK." The paper published more than 100 news stories about, and editorials opposing, the KKK from 1950 to 1953.[2]

He and his paper endured a number of threats, but found an ally in neighboring Whiteville, where editor Willard Cole republished many of the Tribune's stories in his Whiteville News Reporter.[4] The reporting lead to an FBI investigation, resulting in 254 convictions of Klansmen, of which 62 were imprisoned or fined.[5] The two journalists were awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.[6] The site claims to be "the first Pulitzer Prize winning weekly newspaper in the United States."[7] Carter later donated the Pulitzer to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where it was on display as of 2009.[5]

In the 1970s Carter left the paper when he moved to Florida. He returned to work as editor emeritus in the mid 1990s.[8]

The paper was renamed the Tabor-Loris Tribune by 2007.[1][9] It is currently owned by Atlantic Corp., which was also founded by Carter.[5] Other news outlets have cited the Tabor-Loris Tribune for its coverage of local issues and events.[10][11][12] The paper was part of a coalition of local and national news outlets that called on a judge to release search warrants sealed during a criminal investigation into voting irregularities in North Carolina's 9th congressional district.[13] The warrants were subsequently unsealed.[14] The Tribune's circulation is estimated at 1,200 in 2018.[15]

References
  1. Hartsoe, Steve (2007-07-04). "Newspapers win public records fight". The Charlotte Observer. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  2. Weber, Bruce (September 20, 2009). "W. Horace Carter, 88, a Publisher Whose Paper Challenged the Klan, Dies". The New York Times.
  3. Hohenberg, John (1971). The Pulitzer prize story : news stories, editorials, cartoons, and pictures from the Pulitzer prize collection at Columbia University. New York : Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-08663-9.
  4. Lanier, Jerry (1979). "Cole, Willard Glover". NCpedia. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  5. "W. Horace Carter, publisher for the Tabor-Loris Tribune, dies". Wilmington Star News. September 16, 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  6. "Public Service". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
  7. "History and Timeline of Atlantic Packaging, Horace Carter, Rusty Carter". Atlantic Packaging. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  8. Cantwell, J. (December 17, 2000). "TABOR CITY; Family builds business on paper, Wilmington, N.C.". Morning Star.
  9. National Endowment for the Humanities (2010-06-09). "About Tabor-Loris tribune". Chronicling America, Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  10. "Minor League Team's Bus Flips Over En Route To Game, Injuring Eight". NESN. 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  11. Wooten, Alan (2018-11-27). "Trio who aided slain trooper recognized". Bladen Journal. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  12. "Bridge cannot be named for fallen trooper". WECT 6 News. 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  13. Ochsner, Nick (2019-03-05). "WBTV among media coalition seeking to unseal search warrants in NC-9 investigation". WBTV 3. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  14. Ochsner, Nick (2019-03-13). "Search warrants offer first details of NC-9 criminal investigation". WBTV 3. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  15. "NC 100: Atlantic notion". Business North Carolina. 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2020-06-26.

Further reading
  • Burritt, Christopher S. (1980). The Role of the Tabor City Tribune in the Downfall of the Association of Carolina Klans, 1950 to 1953. [dissertation]
  • Carter, W. Horace (2001). Only in America : an autobiography of a weekly newspaperman and business success. Atlantic Pub. Co. ISBN 0937866911.
  • Chalmers, David Mark (1987). Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822307723.
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