King Not ‘Nigger,’ Just ‘Darkie’: Ala. Editor Commenting on reaction to an editorial in which he called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr “the controversial darkie,” Roswell Falkenberry, editor-publisher of the Selma (Ala.) Times-Journal, told JET: “Now look, I know you-all up North might think hard of us for saying that, but down here our good colored folk don't consider that a derogatory word. Why, we’ve been calling them that here for a hundred years, and nobody gets offended. But I’ll tell you one thing: long as I’m editor of this paper, we’ll never call a darkie a ‘nigger’ Now that’s a word I don't even use; I think it's a nasty word, and I don't let my writers use it.” About Dr. King, Falkenberry said: “Now, I don't think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, ‘cause he's done everything but keep the peace in this part of the country. But, personally, I think he's a great man . . . one of the greatest men in the world when it comes to what he's trying to do. We all know that this integration business is here, and we know we've got to face it. So I don't want anybody to feel hard toward us for calling King a ‘darkie’ cause, to us, that's what he is.”