Journalist, Freedom Forum trustee Carl Rowan dies

The Associated Press

09.25.00

Printer-friendly page

Carl Thomas Rowan

WASHINGTON — Carl Thomas Rowan, 75, the well-known commentator once called America's "most visible black journalist" for his eloquent columns exploring race relations and championing civil rights, died Saturday. He was a trustee of the Freedom Forum and the First Amendment Center.

Rowan died about 3 a.m. at Washington Hospital Center, hospital spokesman LeRoy Tillman said.

Rowan died of natural causes, said his son, Carl Rowan Jr. His father had suffered from a variety of illnesses in recent years, including diabetes and heart problems.

Still, Rowan Jr. said the ailments did not deter a man who forged an extraordinary work ethic from his humble upbringing during the Great Depression.

"Even though he was feeling sick, he said he had to go in and do the column," Rowan Jr., a lawyer, said about his father's final column last week.

Allen H. Neuharth, founder of The Freedom Forumand USA TODAY, recalled his friend as "a poor, black country kid from Tennessee who said 'no' to the status quo there, across the USA, and around the world."

Rowan's career spanned more than half a century. Besides his columns, he was a frequent guest on public affairs radio and television programs and served in the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

"Carl provided one of journalism's most distinctive voices," observed Jonathan Wolman, executive editor of The Associated Press, who knew the columnist for many years in Washington. "He was a pioneering reporter who crossed into government and then into commentary, always speaking his mind, usually poking away at the status quo."

"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 mindset of most of the media."

Born in 1925 in Ravenscroft, Tenn., a dying coal mining town, Rowan in his autobiography told of growing up with "no electricity, no running water, no toothbrushes ... no telephone, no radio and no regular inflow of money."

Still, he excelled in school and graduated in 1947 from Oberlin College in Ohio. He entered journalism after a stint as one of the Navy's first black commissioned officers. 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 1991 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 ambassador to Finland in the Kennedy administration, and as director of the U.S. Information Agency under Johnson.

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

In a 1998 interview with the Associated Press, Rowan said that for the most part, he had led a privileged life meeting "the movers and shakers of the world," then settling down into a home in Washington down the street from his son.

He displayed his sense of humor a year ago during the Gridiron Club's annual dinner, where journalists lampoon the president and politicians. Rowan donned a blond wig to portray Linda Tripp, the Pentagon employee who secretly recorded conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Despite the high profile in the nation's capital and accolades during his distinguished career, Rowan never forgot his humble childhood, his son said.

"In a lot of ways he was a small-town kid from Tennessee, and every day he got up he was surprised by how far he had come," the younger Rowan said. "He taught us to believe in something, to fight for what we believe in."

Never did Rowan make that clearer than when his right leg was amputated two years ago because of diabetes, his son said. With the help of a cane, Rowan was able to walk in half the time predicted by his doctors and kept a demanding work schedule.

He also established a college scholarship fund, which Rowan Jr. said would be his father's "lasting legacy."

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

The program blossomed to give away millions in scholarships and teamed up with the Freedom Forum to hand out additional "instant scholarships" worth millions more.

Rowan found himself in the center of controversy several times, taking on public figures like Louis Farrakhan and Pat Buchanan in his writings. He once called Ronald Reagan a racist.

In 1998, Rowan — who advocated strict handgun control — was arrested and charged with using an unregistered weapon to wound a teen-ager who had intruded into his back yard. He argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family.

A mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked.

Rowan also is survived by his wife of 50 years, Vivien; son Jeffrey, a clinical psychologist; daughter, Barbara, a former journalist; and four grandchildren.

His three-times-a-week column was nationally syndicated by King Features. He was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his commentaries.

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