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which we accessed through the Baltimore County Public Library. We found appalling coverage
that clearly furthered prejudice and alienated many of our readers.

Among the paper’s offenses:

• Classified ads selling enslaved people or offering rewards for their return, the first of
which appeared just two months after the paper’s launch in May 1837;
• Editorials in the early 1900s seeking to disenfranchise Black voters because, as The Sun
opinion writers wrote, “the exclusion of the ignorant and thriftless negro vote will make
for better political conditions” and to support racial segregation in neighborhoods to
preserve what Sun writers called the “dominant and superior” white race;
• A failure to hire any African American journalists before the 1950s, and too few Black
journalists ever since;
• The identification of Black people by race in articles into the early 1960s, until
progressive readers threatened to cancel their subscriptions if the labels weren’t removed;
• A reliance by too many of us for too long on the word of law enforcement over that of
Black residents who said they were being improperly targeted by police;
• A 2002 editorial dismissal of African American lawyer Michael Steele, running mate to
gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich, as bringing “little to the team but the color of his
skin”;
• A dearth of stories about issues relevant and important to non-white communities, and a
failure to feature Black residents in stories of achievement and inspiration, rather than
crime and poverty, on a level proportionate to that of their white counterparts.

The paper’s prejudice hurt people. It hurt families, it hurt communities, and it hurt the nation as a
whole by prolonging and propagating the notion that the color of someone’s skin has anything to
do with their potential or their worth to the wider world.

The Sun’s bigotry also hurt its business. It cost the paper readership and community credibility,
particularly in Baltimore City, where the African American population swelled from about a fifth
of residents when Abell founded the paper, to more than 60% today. Distrust of The Sun has
been handed down through generations of Black Marylanders, deservedly so.

We who make up The Sun today are committed to atoning for the paper’s past wrongs regarding
race and have taken steps toward an intentionally inclusive future in our pages and professional
practices. We know it’s not enough to simply avoid doing further harm by rejecting stereotypes;
we must actively work against them by reflecting and promoting the experiences of the full
spectrum of our population, across racial, religious, economic, sexual and social boundaries.

In recognition of this, the paper has taken a number of steps over the past several years. They
include:

• Launching a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion reporting team focused on telling the stories
of underserved groups;
• Developing a cultural competency style guide to help ensure that our coverage of Black,
Hispanic, Latino and Asian American communities; Indigenous people; people with
disabilities; and LGBTQ+ individuals is respectful, accurate, inclusive and fair;

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