I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLEIN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter,Carl Rowan. He was one of the most honored reporters in the UnitedStates.
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VOICE ONE:
Carl Rowan was known for thepowerful stories that he wrote for major newspapers. His columnswere published in more than one-hundred newspapers across the UnitedStates. He was the first black newspaper columnist to have his workappear in major newspapers.
Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also awriter of best selling books. He wrote about the lives of AfricanAmerican civil rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior andUnited States Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.
Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular publicspeaker. For thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television showabout American politics.
VOICE TWO:
Carl Rowan won praise over the years for his reports about racerelations in America. He provided a public voice for poor people andminorities in America. He influenced people in positions of power.
Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was thefirst black deputy Secretary of State in the administration ofPresident John F. Kennedy. And he was the first black director ofthe United States Information Agency which at the time supervisedthe Voice of America.
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VOICE ONE:
Carl Rowan was born in Nineteen-Twenty-Five in the southern cityof Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression,one of the worst economic times in the United States. His family wasvery poor. His father stacked wood used for building, when he hadwork. His mother worked cleaning the homes of white people when shecould. The Rowan family had no electricity, no running water, notelephone and no radio. Carl said he would sometimes steal food ordrink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms.
The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knewif it was time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said ifthe train was late, he was late.
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Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There werenot many jobs for blacks in the south. The schools were not good.Racial tensions were high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks andwhites separate.
It was a teacher who urged Carl to make something of himself.Bessie Taylor Gwynn taught him to believe he could be a poet or awriter. She urged him to write as much as possible. She would evenget books for him because blacks were banned from public libraries.
Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. Andhe did. He graduated at the top of his class.
VOICE ONE:
Carl entered Tennessee State College in Nineteen-Forty-Two. Healmost had to leave college after the first few months because hedid not have enough money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luckchanged. He found the twenty dollars he needed to stay in college.
Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by theUnited States Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navyofficers. He said that experience changed his life.
Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward, he returnedto college and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on toreceive his master’s degree in journalism from the University ofMinnesota.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for theMinneapolis Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the firstblack reporters to write for a major daily newspaper.
As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the southduring the civil rights movement. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he traveledto the Middle East to cover the war over the Suez Canal. He alsoreported from Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He won severalmajor reporting awards.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the south interestedPresident John F. Kennedy. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, President Kennedyappointed Mister Rowan deputy assistant secretary of state. Heserved as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban missilecrisis in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Mister Rowan later was appointedambassador to Finland.
During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, CarlRowan got to know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became presidentafter President Kennedy’s was assassinated in Nineteen-Sixty-Three.
In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Johnson named Carl Rowandirector of the United States Information Agency. The position madehim the highest level African American in the United Statesgovernment. Mister Rowan said being chosen to head the United StatesInformation Agency and the Voice of America was one of the greathonors of his life.
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VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Carl Rowan left the government andstarted writing for newspapers. He wrote a column that told hisopinions about important social, economic and political issues. Itappeared several times a week in a number of newspapers. Radio andtelevision jobs followed.
Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, hewrote with more feeling about one subject than any other: thateducation and hard work will help young African Americans moveforward.
Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He saidthey believed that to study hard and perform well in school was”acting white.” He deplored the idea that excellence is for whitesonly.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Mister Rowan created a program called”Project Excellence.” The program rewards black students who do wellin school. Over the years, the program has provided millions ofdollars to help African American students get money for college.
Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racialjustice in America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from otherblack Americans. He wrote about wrongdoing within the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP fightsfor the civil rights of African Americans. Mister Rowan’s columnsled to the resignation of its chairman and helped speed theorganization’s financial recovery.
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Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large housein Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren.
He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But inNineteen-Eighty-Eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he didnot legally own. He shot and wounded a teenager who was on hisproperty illegally. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial,he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary toprotect himself and his family.
The jury failed to reach a decision in the case.
In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Carl Rowan wrote a book about his lifecalled “Breaking Barriers.” Several years later, he wrote a bookcalled “The Coming Race War in America.” The book describes theexploding anger between blacks and whites and the possibility of afuture race war. Some people praised the book. Others thought it washarmful and irresponsible.
VOICE ONE:
Carl Rowan was the first black president of an organization oftop reporters in Washington called the Gridiron Club. The group doesa show every year that makes fun of the American political process.Mister Rowan often performed by singing or leading a comedy act.
Carl Rowan used simple words when he spoke, yet he was verydirect. He was criticized sometimes for that. Some people thoughtthat his ideas were too liberal. Others thought he was too moderate.But most people thought his stories generally were very fair.
Mister Rowan talks about his life in his book, “BreakingBarriers”:
CUT 1 – CARL ROWAN ACT
VOICE TWO:
Carl Rowan died September Twenty-Third, Two-Thousand, inWashington, DC. He was seventy-five years old. During the last yearsof his life, he suffered from diabetes and heart problems. But henever failed to write his newspaper column. He never let bad thingsslow him down.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’mShirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLEIN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.