The local newspaper in Uvalde, Texas, published a powerful front page image the day after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two faculty members in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
The image was striking not for what is showed, but for what it did not; the paper's front page was completely black, with the exception of the paper's banner and the date, 24 May 2022.
Yahoo News reports that the vast majority of the Uvalde Leader-News — 10 of its 12 pages — were dedicated to regular community coverage as would be expected in any local newspaper. There were stories about local elections, the weather, school graduations, and local sports teams.
Throughout that section of the paper, there were few references to the tragedy outside of a blood drive announcement and an ad for the school's memorial fund.
The paper's last two pages, however, were dedicated solely to the shooting.
One headline on the back page of the paper reads "City's Soul Crushed”, and included photos of Robb Elementary School students being whisked away from the building by their parents or helped out of school windows. In one photo a teacher can be seen running to safety as her students are evacuated from the school.
In another photo, the shooter's abandoned and wrecked truck, stuck in a ditch, is pictured. A rifle, believed to have been owned by the shooter, can be seen sitting on a duffel bag on the ground next to the truck's passenger-side door.
Since then, the paper has been posting frequent updates to its Facebook page promoting community events in the wake of the shooting, all under the tag "Uvalde Strong."
One post shows rows of small crosses erected on the front lawn of Robb Elementary School, each bearing the name of one of the victims. A local couple spent a day making the memorials and dropped them off at the school.
In another post, a photo shows the filled Uvalde County Arena where a prayer vigil was held on Wednesday night. According to the paper, cars lined both sides of Highway 90 because the parking lot filled up.
A third promotes the Robb School Memorial Fund, with details on how to make donations and where to send them.
