Timeline of Misinformation

1898
Hearst newspapers denounce Spaniards, Mexican-Americans, and Latinos after the seizure of 800,000 acres of Hearst-owned prime Mexican timber land by the "marijuana smoking army of Pancho Villa."

Vigorous slander of the Mexican people continues in Hearst and other publications for three decades. Because of Hearst's personal prejudices against African-Americans and Hispanics and Hearst's covert motivations to link them with the proliferation of an "evil drug," the term "marijuana"--a word totally unfamiliar to the average hemp-using American--is used exclusively to identify hemp throughout this public disinformation campaign.

1910 - 1920
Southern "officials" are alarmed because "pot smoking darkie jazz musicians" are beginning to "think that they are as good as whites." [Continue]