Two members of Alabama’s congressional delegation are calling for the resignation of the man who wrote an editorial in the Democrat-Reporter newspaper in Linden headlined “Klan needs to ride again.”

In Monday night tweets, U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell both called on Goodloe Sutton to resign. Jones called the editorial “absolutely disgusting” and Sewell called Sutton’s editorial and comments about lynching “deeply offensive and inappropriate.”

Two state lawmakers from west Alabama also said they had not seen the editorial but said they are not surprised because of what they said is the newspaper’s track record for racist content.

The editorial says it’s “Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again” because “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama.”

Sutton, editor and publisher of the Democrat-Reporter, told the Montgomery Advertiser that he wrote the editorial, published on Feb. 14.

“If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off,” Sutton told the Advertiser.

Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said he doesn’t subscribe to or read the Democrat-Reporter.

“He’s been making those kind of racist epithets for a long time,” Singleton said.

“Goodloe is just being Goodloe as far as I’m concerned.” But Singleton said he does not take the comments lightly.

Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Livingston, said he had not heard about the Klan editorial.

“That kind of ignorance is the reason I don’t even subscribe to the paper,” McCampbell said. He said he advertised in the paper at one time but no longer has anything to do with it.

The short editorial suggests that sometimes the men who rode on horseback in robes were former slaves.

“Slaves, just freed after the civil war, were not stupid. At times, they borrowed their former masters’ robes and horses and rode through the night to frighten some evil doer. Sometimes they had to kill one of two of them, but so what.”

OMG! What rock did this guy crawl out from under? This editorial is absolutely disgusting & he should resign -NOW!



I have seen what happens when we stand by while people-especially those with influence- publish racist, hateful views.



Words matter. Actions matter. Resign now! https://t.co/V1V1vxDBKH — Doug Jones (@DougJones) February 19, 2019

For the millions of people of color who have been terrorized by white supremacy, this kind of “editorializing” about lynching is not a joke – it is a threat. These comments are deeply offensive and inappropriate, especially in 2019. Mr. Sutton should apologize and resign. https://t.co/AOYYGINEdh — Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) February 19, 2019

Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP, said tonight he had not seen the editorial and would withhold any comment until after he has read it.

Chip Brownlee, a journalist at Auburn University, called attention to the editorial earlier today on Twitter.