In remembrance of Carl T. Rowan

In Sept. 25, a headline in the IDS read, "Washington Post writer Carl Thomas Rowan dies at 75," and it reported the death at Washington Hospital Center of 75-year-old Carl Thomas Rowan, who was once described as America's "most visible black journalist." On Amer-ica's political history and journalism, Rowan left an indelible mark. He once told a reporter in an interview that he wanted to be remembered as a black person who "never sold out." It was a legacy that several of Rowan's black contemporaries wanted to leave behind, hence the late Rev. Ralph David Abernathy of Atlanta, for example, wanted his tombstone to read, "I tried." However, his 1989 book, "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down," dug up so much dirt on the cherished memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that King admirers felt that he did not "try hard" enough.\nIndeed, Rowan had a tough upbringing that was reminiscent of how many blacks were brought up in needy situations back on the African continent. In "Breaking Barriers," his published memoirs, he revealed that, after being born August 11, 1925, at Ravenscroft in Tennessee, he was raised in a poverty-stricken environment, where there was no electricity, no toothbrushes, no running water, no radio and no telephone.\nAlso, just like many minorities in search of higher education at the time, young Rowan had to scrub porches at a tuberculosis hospital to earn the needed funds to begin studies at the Nashville-based Tennessee State College, where he excelled in a national competitive exam to be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy -- one of the initial 15 blacks so commissioned for World War II services. Later, he retired and used his naval benefits to study and earn two degrees: a mathematics degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.\nAs a result of Rowan's passionate writings about American race relations, he was tapped for varied governmental services: as a deputy assistant secretary of state, as an official U.S. delegate to the United Nations during the volatile Cuban missile crisis and, later, as ambassador to Helsinki Finland, during Kennedy's presidency and, under President Johnson, as the director of the United States Information Agency (USIA).\nRowan's other accomplishments included his award-winning syndicated column which appeared in over 60 newspapers; his long service on the Washington-based public affairs program, "Inside Washington;" and his endowment of "Project Excellence" scholarship program for high school graduates to attend universities.\nApart from being an anti-corruption crusading journalist, Rowan also wrote eight books, including "Wait Till Next Year," a biography of Jackie Robinson; "Dream Makers, Dream Breakers," a biography of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; and a 1996 book, "The Coming Race War in America," which is about the deterioration in American race relations. In an interview, Rowan pointed out that racism was still alive in American life, and that it was part of the American culture, adding, "And there are still millions of Americans who believe blacks are inferior."\nRowan is survived by Vivien Rowan, his wife of 50 years, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren. To many who knew Rowan and his penchant pen, his death marks the end of a true American literary titan.