The black woman named as publisher and editor of the small-town Alabama newspaper where the former white owner and publisher wrote last month that the Ku Klux Klan should “ride again,” has resigned.

The news was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by AL.com Saturday in an interview with Linden Mayor Charles Moore.

Moore said that Elecia R. Dexter, who was named as the news editor and publisher on Feb. 21, was “ran off” by the former publisher, Goodloe Sutton.

“He never left the building,” said Moore about Sutton, whose family has owned and operated the Democrat-Reporter based in Linden since 1917. “It seemed like (Dexter) would be real energetic and her (hiring) was the right thing.”

Dexter was not immediately available for comment, and no one answered a phone call at the Democrat-Reporter’s office on Saturday morning.

“I would like to see them fade out, I mean, really, he’s been in the position over the years that he could’ve done a lot of good stuff here in Marengo County,” said Moore, who accuses Sutton of tearing down the county and writing racially-insensitive articles that have upset black residents in a county that is a majority black.

In this Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019 photo, Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, speaks during an interview at the newspaper's office in Linden, Ala. Sutton, who advocated for a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in a newspaper editorial, is turning over control to a black woman. The Democrat-Reporter, announced Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, that Elecia R. Dexter is taking over as the paper's publisher and editor from Sutton. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)AP

Sutton, 80, drew widespread criticism last month after he wrote an editor in the Democrat-Reporter calling for a return of the K.K.K.

Several politicians, including U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, called on Sutton to resign. Sutton was also stripped of his past journalism awards, and was censured by the Alabama Press Association.

Sewell, in a statement to AL.com Saturday, reaffirmed her call for Sutton to step away from the business.

“It is clear to me that Mr. Sutton must apologize and step down, fully and completely, to allow the Marengo community to move forward from his continued offensive and inappropriate comments," she said.

Sutton, in an interview last month, said he had no regrets and claimed his editorial was misunderstood.

The New York Times, in its report Friday, quoted Dexter who said she was continuously interfered with by Sutton.

“I would have liked it to turn out a different way, but it didn’t,” Dexter is quoted by the Times. “This is a hard one because it’s sad — so much good could have come out of this.”

Dexter told The Times that Sutton emailed an altered version of the Feb. 28 issue of the paper to local news outlets and advertisers, which showed an article about his retirement replaced with one defending his editorial and criticizing The Montgomery Advertiser for its previous coverage on the matter.

The subject line, according to The New York Times: “fake news hurts little people.”

Dexter told the Times she was stepping down to maintain her “integrity and well-being.”

Moore said he hopes the newspaper “fades out.” The publication, with a circulation of about 3,000 subscribers, was also up for sale, Sutton told AL.com last month.

“They had a decent newspaper about 16 years ago,” said Moore. “His wife was a very good investigative reporter and a very nice person. When she passed away, all the credibility of that newspaper left.”

Jean Sutton died in 2003.

Moore said that Sutton has been three years behind on paying his annual business license. He described the Democrat-Reporter’s office as an operation inside a “one-room shanty.”

Moore said the attention from Sutton’s editorial has been “way more than I wanted.” Sutton, to AL.com last month, said it got him “$10 million in free publicity.”