A "Fearless Editor” in a Changing world Fort wayne’s Jesse Greene

Abstract

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, Fort wayne newspaper editor Jesse Greene used his bully pulpit to attack vice and bigotry in his city. Greene became particularly well-known for exposing the deeply entrenched racism of the Ku Klux Klan after they moved into Fort wayne in 1921. For two years (until Greene’s death in 1923), his newspaper, the Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, condemned the “intolerance, prejudice and hatred” of the organization that Greene considered a “menace to Americanism.” As an important voice of the Progressive Era in the Midwest, Greene shaped public opinion across northeast Indiana and throughout the state. Greene’s life and work remind contemporary readers of the indispensable role of a free press.