Fighting for the Forty-Ninth Star: C. W. Snedden and the Crusade for Alaska Statehood

When Alaskans in the 1950s demanded an end to the "second-class Citizenship" of territorial status, southern powerbrokers on Capitol Hill were the primary obstacles. They feared a forty-ninth state would tip the balance of power against segregation, and therefore keeping Alaska out of the Union was simply another means of keeping black children out of white, schools.

C. W. "Bill" Snedden, the publisher of America's farthest north daily newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, helped lead t...