Dear Editor:

Your publisher, Dennis Palmer promised “fair and balanced” reporting regarding the charges against Council President, Cecil Williamson’s association with hate groups. The article written by you on Sunday was as unbalanced at it can get.

Balance means presenting all sides of a story. I believe your story only presented Cecil Williamson’s side, which was full of inaccuracies and mis-information.

I was amazed that you did not challenge his contention that he left the League of the South two decades ago when you were provided what I believe is evidence of his association with the League of the South as recently as 2005. You were provided a League of the South calendar that listed Williamson as a speaker at the Alabama Secession Day Celebration. His co-hort, Patricia Godwin, was on the same calendar and you failed to mention this.

You did not ask him if he is a secessionist, which is tantamount to treason against the United States.

You allowed Williamson to gloss over the racist history of Nathan Bedford Forrest. The fact is he was one of the biggest slave traders in the South, was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and led a massacre of “Colored” Union troops. These facts are easily accessible; they are all over the Internet. You were provided evidence of these facts but you failed to use them. You could have gone a step further and contacted historians to confirm these facts.

Although you were provided with photographs of Cecil Williamson and Patricia Godwin, the organizers of the Forrest birthday celebration, and the racist caricatures of a black child eating watermelon, you failed to use them. To make matters worse, you accepted Williamson’s lie that he did not see the racist caricatures. You can tell by the picture that it would be impossible not to see them if you attended the event, and he admitted to eating watermelon where the caricatures were displayed.

You were provided with a packet of racist literature that was sold at the Birthday Celebration that you failed to mention or question Williamson about it. This literature attacks the Voting Rights Movement, Viola Liuzzo, Rev. James Reeb and the Selma to Montgomery marchers.

We also provided you with an article written by Williamson, The Real Reason Our Heritage is Attacked, that clearly shows his racial bias, and you failed to question him or report on the article.

Shame on you and shame on the Selma Times Journal

Sincerely,

Connie Tucker

Selma