Columnist Carl Rowan dies at age 75

Rowan was once called America's "most visible black journalist"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Carl Thomas Rowan, a well-known commentator and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who was once called America's "most visible black journalist," died Saturday. He was 75.

LeRoy Tillman, a spokesman for Washington Hospital Center, said Rowan died of natural causes in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit at about 3 a.m.

Rowan, he said, "was in and out of the hospital for various illness for the past few weeks."

In a statement, President Clinton said he and the first lady were saddened to learn of Rowan's death.

"He was without a doubt, one of our nation's most eloquent voices for human rights and racial justice," the Clinton statement said. "His gentle, civil tone only heightened the power of his commentary; and he felt a special obligation not only to inform his readers but to enrich them with new ways of thinking."

During a career that spanned more than a half-century Rowan had been a frequent guest on public affairs radio and television programs and had served in the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

"First I see myself simply as a newspaper man and commentator," Rowan told one interviewer. "I inform people and expose them to a point of view they wouldn't get. I work against the racial mind-set of most of the media."

Rowan was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee, a dying coal mining town, in 1925. He grew up poor during the Great Depression and in his autobiography told of living with "no electricity, no running water, no toothbrushes ... no telephone, no radio and no regular inflow of money."

Still he excelled in school and went on to college. He entered journalism after a stint as one of the first black commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy. He worked as a copy editor at the Minneapolis Tribune.

He returned to the South in the 1950s to report on the Supreme Court's decision requiring school desegregation.

At the time, "no more than five blacks could claim to be general assignment reporters and few were writing anything serious about the American social, political or economic scene," Rowan wrote in his autobiography, "Breaking Barriers."

His reporting on race relations led Kennedy to appoint him deputy secretary of state. Before returning to journalism, he also served as a delegate to the United Nations, ambassador to Finland and director of the United States Information Agency.

He has made race a recurrent theme in his commentaries and columns, as well as in the college scholarship fund he set up 10 years ago.

After reading about a local high school where black students were embarrassed to stand as their names were called during an honor roll ceremony he created Project Excellence to help and encourage black youth to finish school and go on to college.

The program burgeoned, giving away millions in scholarships and teaming up with the Freedom Forum to hand out additional "instant scholarships" worth millions more.

In a Washington Post profile, Rowan was once called "the most visible black journalist in the country."

Rowan, who had advocated strict handgun control, found himself in the center of a gun controversy during the 1980s when he was arrested and charged with using an unregistered weapon to wound a teen-ager who intruded into his backyard.

Rowan argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. The jury deadlocked and the judge hearing the case declared a mistrial.

He is survived by his wife, Vivien.

Also surviving are two sons, Carl Rowan Jr., a lawyer; Jeffrey, a clinical psychologist, and one daughter, Barbara, a former journalist.

His three-times-a-week column was nationally syndicated by King Features.

On television, Rowan was a panelist on "Inside Washington" from 1967 to 1996.

In addition to his newspaper columns and magazine articles Rowan was the author of numerous books. He was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his commentaries.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

United States Information Agency
The Freedom Forum online. News about free press, free speech and free spirit.
  • Journalist, Freedom Forum trustee Carl Rowan dies
  • $1 million endowment created to support Carl Rowan's Project Excellence

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.