A nationally acclaimed opinion editor provides a winsome and eye-opening tour through the golden age of Kansas journalism, proving why local newspapers and incisive commentary are indispensable for an informed public.
William Allen White famously asked, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” But he was not the only local journalist raising important questions about the future of the Sunflower State and the nation—not by a long shot.
White lived during the golden age of print journalism, when local newspapers were at the center of their communities and opinion writers shaped the conversation of the day. Today, when reporting from Capitol Hill could not be further away from the concerns of Main Street, Opinionated reminds us how truly significant these hometown journalists were, and why commentary was—and is—essential to any society that values the freedom of expression.
Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at Kansas Reflector, takes readers on a tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, introducing us to the people who shaped public discourse in the heartland, including:
- The indomitable Mamie Boyd of the small town of Mankato—later dubbed the “most boring town in America”—who was a working journalist into her nineties and was first and only woman to receive the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit.
- Lucile Bluford of Kansas City, who used The Call to press tirelessly for civil rights and whose application to the University of Missouri led to the closure of its journalism graduate school, supposedly because of World War II, but ultimately barring a Black woman.
- Hollie T. Sims, who founded the long-running The Negro Star in Mississippi before moving to Wichita, fleeing racist hostility, and became a prominent journalist-activist decades before the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.
- The affable Bill Meyer, who led the Marion County Record for decades before turning it over to his son. The paper was targeted by a police raid in 2023, sparking a national debate about freedom of the press in today’s America.
With a quick wit and penetrating insight, Wirestone adds his own opinion pieces about the state of journalism today, how aspiring journalists can learn to write compelling commentary, and why local news outlets should be a crucial part of a diverse and democratic society. Opinionated is for anyone who understands the importance in knowing our shared history, for the journalists of today and tomorrow, and for anyone who believes in the power of free speech and a free press.
Industry Reviews
"It shouldn't be surprising that a state forged by the Civil War would foster a tradition of provocative editorial voices. In the lively Opinionated, Clay Wirestone profiles a dozen of them, from Angelo Scott of The Iola Register to Emanuel Haldeman-Julius of The American Freeman in Girard. Their topics are often not the ponderous issues of Washington but more the concerns of community. Should voters support a levy to encourage more industries in Iola? (Yes, Scott wrote, and it passed.) Should the working people of Girard embrace socialism? (Yes, Haldeman-Julius insisted, to less success.) Or as William Allen White famously asked in The Emporia Gazette, 'What's the Matter with Kansas?' Their ranks have sharply dwindled amid the news industry's pressures today, but Wirestone persuasively argues that the need for courageous commentary hasn't diminished. Consider one of the closing chapters about the late Bill Meyer of The Marion County Record. The offices of the newspaper, now run by his son, were raided by police in an act of political retribution in 2023."-Susan Page is the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, the author of The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, and a fourth-generation Kansan
