Friends, family pay tribute to Carl Rowan

By Cheryl Arvidson
The Freedom Forum Online

10.03.00

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Carl Thomas Rowan

WASHINGTON — As hundreds of bright African-American high school students met nearby with college recruiters to win college scholarships, Carl T. Rowan, the man who made it all possible, was saluted today as a tireless fighter for civil rights who believed learning could open every door.

Rowan, who died on Sept. 23 at age 75, was remembered by friends, family and colleagues at a memorial service at the Washington Hilton Hotel. The service was held in the same hotel and on the same day as the 8th annual Freedom Forum/Project Excellence Scholarship Day that Rowan was devoted to.

"This is not a wake," said Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of The Freedom Forum, where Rowan was a trustee. "We've assembled here to remember the joy that Carl brought to all of us and to remember his professionalism as a journalist, his insights as a commentator, his wit and singing abilities as a Gridiron Club member, his vision as a dreamer and the founder of Project Excellence, his courage as a trailblazer and his influence as a dad."

Project Excellence, which Rowan founded in 1987, has helped more than 3,000 promising African-American high school students advance their education with nearly $80 million in scholarship money. Rowan began Project Excellence because of his concern that academic excellence for young blacks was not being properly recognized and needed to be encouraged and rewarded.

Speakers at today's memorial service shared touching moments and humorous stories about a man who broke down barriers and courageously challenged the status quo throughout his life. He grew accustomed to being "the first" or among the "firsts" as an African-American Naval officer, diplomat, prominent journalist and commentator. But the speakers said of all his accomplishments, Project Excellence would be his lasting, living legacy.

Gordon Peterson, a news anchor for WUSA-TV in Washington and host of "Inside Washington" where Rowan was a featured commentator for many years, said he believed the inspiration for Project Excellence came from the abject poverty and Jim Crow prejudice of Rowan's childhood in McMinnville, Tenn. Blacks were not allowed in the town library then, except to wash the floors, Peterson recalled, but Rowan was befriended by a wealthy woman who smuggled books out of the library and gave them to Rowan's teacher for him to read.

"I think the seeds of Project Excellence were sown back there in McMinnville as Carl read those books that had been smuggled out of the library that he was not allowed to enter as a child," Peterson told the crowd.

He noted that Dr. Katina Byrd, who began her college education with a Project Excellence scholarship and went on to earn a medical degree, was among the speakers at the tribute. "She is Carl Rowan's medal of honor," Peterson said. "She is Carl Rowan's gift to this country."

"I have learned about diligence, and I learned through hard work you can accomplish your goals," said Byrd, who is now a fellow at the Cancer Institute of the Washington Hospital Center. "The ideas of Mr. Rowan say to me, 'Never give up.' I have learned to name it and claim it. I have learned not to take no for an answer."

Rowan's son Carl Jr. said his father viewed himself as a "pioneer for racial justice" who "didn't invent the riot act but he may very well have perfected it." Through his "relentless determination and his sometimes prickly personality," Rowan set a high standard for not only his family but for all the young students who aspired to be Project Excellence scholars.

"He insisted there be no give-aways in Project Excellence. If you got a scholarship, you earned it," Rowan Jr. said.

"Don't worry about him," his eldest son continued. "I'm sure he's fine. He's already given St. Peter a list of changes that must be enacted immediately." And, to the heavenly hosts, Rowan Jr. offered this advice: "He's going to be up there with you for an eternity. Just give the man what he wants or he'll never leave you alone."

William Raspberry, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, heralded Rowan for opening doors "for people who look like me." But Raspberry, president of the Gridiron Club, also recalled Rowan as "an irrepressible ham" who delighted in his solo vocal performances at the Gridiron's annual dinner for Washington big-wigs.

"He left a legacy of laughter as well," Raspberry said. "If you do have dignity, putting on the most outrageous costume won't take it away. Carl had dignity."

Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor of The Washington Post, said his longtime friend "became an icon to a generation of aspiring black journalists."

"The most important thing was that he was there, and if he could be there, then one day they could be there," he said.

Noting that "those who have lived there know that to be a 'first' can be a very lonely place," Coleman said that Rowan, through Project Excellence, set about on a task of producing so many excellent young black professionals that few would have to be the "first" alone.

"If life was going to be a tennis court, then Carl Rowan was going to send out one Venus Williams after another," Coleman said. "So we thank God for Carl Rowan, for what he chose to do and what he was able to do."

Allen H. Neuharth, founder of The Freedom Forum and USA TODAY, said his friendship with Rowan dated back to the 1950s when both were cub reporters, Neuharth with the AP in South Dakota and Rowan with the Minneapolis Tribune in Minnesota.

He recalled one discussion in which Rowan told him, "Al, you're a poor white country kid from South Dakota, and I'm a poor black country kid from Tennessee, but we're both going to shake things up."

Through Project Excellence, Rowan "has changed the status quo for thousands of kids by making it cool to be smart," Neuharth said. He then invited the audience to join in a reception in Rowan's honor, to toast "the cool, caring Carl ... for helping make this world a better place for free spirits of all ages and of all races."