AURORA, Mo. — In the early 20th century, a small town in southwest Missouri became the birthplace of one of the most notorious propaganda publications in American history — and, at its peak, one of the most widely circulated papers in the United States.
Aurora, a quiet railroad hub nestled in Lawrence County, might never have seemed a logical epicenter for national controversy. Yet in 1911, it became the home of the Menace, a weekly paper that catapulted itself into the national spotlight with a mix of sensationalism and anti-Catholic rhetoric.
Springfield attorney Kyle Skopec, who holds a master’s degree in history and has studied the Menace extensively, said that, as a practicing Catholic, he found the local attitude toward the paper revealing.
“The townspeople of Aurora, generally speaking, were less interested in the content and substance of the Menace and more in the benefit it brought to Aurora,” Skopec told Ozarks First. “Through the Menace, the townspeople felt that Aurora was contributing to the nation and was part of the national story.”…