A new book reveals the Baltimore Sun's shocking role in spreading racial fear in the early part of the last century. Scathing editorials about how blacks and Jews were bad for property values were just the start. As B'more enacted the first U.S. laws in the early 1900s mandating racial segregation by neighborhood, the Baltimore Sun helped control the spread of black residential neighborhoods by publishing bogus real estate ads, according to the book.
Journalists not only cover unsavory trends, they sometimes participate in them- a hard truth that former Baltimore Sun reporter ANTERO PIETILA found especially painful as he researched his recently-published book "Not in my Neighborhood: how bigotry shaped a great American city."
After 10 years of digging through historical records to tell the story of how Baltimore became a national leader in residential segregation, Pietila uncovered details of his former employer's behavior that shocked him.
SOURCE: BALTIMORE BREW
Read more in BALTIMORE BREW: History of Baltimore's Racial Segregation Includes a Hard Look at Newspapers' Role