While supposedly never before advocating for the destruction of another newspaper, The Maroon’s creation was born out of the death of another paper. Upon the Maroon’s founding a century ago, Loyola’s freshman law class found themselves threatened by the paper’s founder Harold A. Dempsey’s new paper which was dedicated to a greater Loyola.
Previous to our founding, the freshman law class had maintained their own newspaper “Pep Juris” and found itself at odds with The Maroon, which was created to represent the entire school and student body rather than just the law students. And after only 3 issues, before even celebrating our one month anniversary, The Maroon reported that “Pep Juris” disbanded, and The Maroon was bestowed the distinction as Loyola’s sole newspaper.
This story, however, is not one of journalistic cannibalism and Harold A. Dempsey’s quest for power over the reporting of news on our campus. It’s one of inclusivity. It was the law students who bowed their heads and allowed the Maroon to prevail, as reported on in the 3rd issue of the Maroon, released December 1, 1923.
A note of thanks in the issue states “Prominent individuals of the Freshman Law class met and decided that Loyola would have but one newspaper and that they would support that one to the fullest extent. This decision meant the abolition of either Pep Juris or The Maroon. Taking into consideration the concepts of both, they decided that the newspaper of their class must go and that The Maroon, the newspaper of every class in the University, must be recognized and supported as the one and only newspaper at Loyola.”
It was The Maroon, founded in dedication to the inclusivity of everyone on campus, which prevailed with the help of Loyola’s student body, dedicated to the same goal. But it is not just our founding that we take pride in. It is our entire history. A history which began on November 15, 1923, a date which seems impossibly long ago, but in reality our history as a newspaper has been very short in the scheme of things.
But in that time frame, we’ve covered a myriad of events such as the Great Depression, World War 2, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter how far back they reach, the effects of these events which we reported upon still linger today. We’ve covered local events with the gubernatorial turmoil of Huey Long’s tenure and his dynasty present in the state, Edwin Edward’s tenure as governor and his famous adage of “vote for the crook, it’s important,” and more recently Jeff Landry’s unfortunate election to the office. Despite all the crooks who’ve held the office, we predict Jeff’s tenure to go down as one of the worst in the state’s history.
But in all our history, we’ve maintained the basic principle that we work for a greater Loyola. We recognize that as the Jesuit university of New Orleans, a city with more history than most others and a city that’s faced more adversity than most others and come out on the other side still breathing, it follows that we are a newspaper that in only a century maintains a history richer than most other student papers, has faced more adversity than most others and come out on the other side still breathing. As local residents say, New Orleans is a trendsetter in most regards, as most things popular in New Orleans become popular in the rest of the country later. We recognize that The Maroon is also a trendsetter.
While many student newspapers, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, remain fully digital, such as our dear friends at the Vanderbilt Hustler, we stand proud of our weekly print issue, which has remained weekly for a century. Most student newspapers don’t still maintain this workflow while also having engaging digital content to coincide. They choose one or the other, but dedicated to the decadence and excess of being in New Orleans, we say “why choose, when you can do both.”
While we remain proud of our print issue, we’re no strangers to a fully digital paper, as we were one of the first to do it, when our campus was shut down in the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Our newsroom fled to faraway corners of the country, but remained dedicated to serving our community by maintaining online content on our website which was almost a decade old.
While we honor our history, we must remain to look forward. We still have obstacles to overcome, worlds to win, mountains to climb, and injustices to report on one barrel of ink at a time. We stand at a critical point in our history, when New Orleans, as it has been for centuries, is at the forefront of some of the biggest issues of our time, and we stand, as student reporters, ready to fight for justice. In reporting on our school and the city, we have remained true to a high standard of honest and ethical journalism. We remain committed to fighting corruption, shining light on injustice, and serving our community however we can.
When the newspaper we replaced, “Pep Juris,” was disbanded, the president of the freshman law class upon its dispersion spoke on the necessity of the Maroon in a speech, reported on in the third ever issue of the Maroon, released December 1, 1923.
The president said “we feel that to issue two university papers would cause friction between the various classes, that would, in the end, be detrimental to the university. We must, in the interest of Loyola, forget our personal ambitions, our personal friendships and our personal prejudices. I believe it is the ambition of every student to be loyal to Loyola and to help make Loyola the greatest university in the South, equal to any in the United States, and exceeded by none. Hence our decision. We have approximately 800 students in this university, and if each and every one will give his or her undivided support to The Maroon, we will have a publication of note.”
Continuing in the aforementioned note of thanks The Maroon dedicated to the demise of “Pep Juris,” the editorial board affirmed the promise enshrined on our paper for a century, saying “And so again we wish to thank the Freshman Law class for what they have done for The Maroon. Their action is but the union of two forces that label their efforts with “FOR A GREATER LOYOLA.”
