名人轶事:One of the Most Honored Reporters in the United States

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN

AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter, Carl Rowan. He

was one of the most honored reporters in the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

Carl Rowan was known for the powerful stories that he wrote for major

newspapers. His columns were published in more than one hundred newspapers

across the United States. He was the first black newspaper columnist¹ to have

his work appear in major newspapers.

Carl Rowan     

Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also a writer of best-

selling books. He wrote about the lives of African American civil rights

leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and United States Supreme² Court

Justice, Thurgood Marshall.

Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular public speaker. For

thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television show about American

politics.

VOICE TWO:

Carl Rowan won praise over the years for his reports about race relations in

America. He provided a public voice for poor people and minorities in

America. He influenced people in positions of power.

VOICE TWO(cont):

Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was the first black

deputy Secretary of State in the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

And he was the first black director of the United States Information Agency

which at the time supervised the Voice of America.

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VOICE ONE:

Carl Rowan was born in Nineteen-Twenty-Five in the southern city of

Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, one of the

worst economic times in the United States. His family was very poor. His

father stacked wood used for building, when he had work. His mother worked

cleaning the homes of white people when she could. The Rowan family had no

electricity, no running water, no telephone and no radio. Carl said he would

sometimes steal food or drink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms.

The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knew if it was

time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said if the train was late,

he was late.

VOICE TWO:

Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There were not many

jobs for blacks in the South. The schools were not good. Racial tensions were

high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks and whites 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 a writer. She urged him to

write as much as possible. She would even get books for him because blacks

were banned from public libraries.

Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. And he did. He

graduated at the top of his class.

VOICE ONE:

Carl entered Tennessee State College in Nineteen-Forty-Two. He almost had to

leave college after the first few months because he did not have enough

money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luck changed. He found the twenty

dollars he needed to stay in college.

VOICE ONE(cont):

Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by the United States

Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navy officers. He said that

experience changed his life.

Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward³, he returned to college

and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on to receive his master

’s degree in journalism⁴ from the University of Minnesota.

VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for the Minneapolis

Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the first black reporters to

write for a major daily newspaper.

As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the South during the civil

rights movement. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he traveled to the Middle East to

cover the war over the Suez Canal. He also reported from Europe, India and

other parts of Asia. He won several major reporting awards. #p#副标题#e#

VOICE ONE:

Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the South interested President

John F. Kennedy. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, President Kennedy appointed Mister

Rowan deputy assistant Secretary of State. He served as a delegate to the

United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Mister

Rowan later was appointed ambassador to Finland.

During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, Carl Rowan got to

know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became president after President

Kennedy was assassinated⁵ in Nineteen-Sixty-Three.

In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Johnson named Carl Rowan director of the

United States Information Agency. The position made him the highest level

African American in the United States government. Mister Rowan said being

chosen to head the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America

was one of the great honors of his life.

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VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Carl Rowan left the government and started writing

for newspapers. He wrote a column that told his opinions about important

social, economic and political issues. It appeared several times a week in a

number of newspapers. Radio and television jobs followed.

Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, he wrote with

more feeling about one subject than any other: that education and hard work

will help young African Americans move forward.

Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He said they

believed that to study hard and perform well in school was “acting white.” 

He deplored⁶ the idea that excellence⁷ is for whites only.

VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Mister Rowan created a program called “Project

Excellence.”  The program rewards black students who do well in school. Over

the years, the program has provided millions of dollars to help African

American students get money for college.

VOICE ONE(cont):

Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racial justice in

America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from other black Americans. He

wrote about wrongdoing within the National Association for the Advancement⁸ of

Colored People. The NAACP fights for the civil rights of African Americans.

Mister Rowan’s columns led to the resignation of its chairman and helped

speed the organization’s financial recovery.

VOICE TWO:

Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large house in

Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren.

 He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But in Nineteen-Eighty-

Eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. He shot

and wounded a teenager who was on his property illegally. Rowan was arrested

and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever

means necessary to protect 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 life called

“Breaking Barriers.”  Several years later, he wrote a book called “The

Coming Race War in America.”  The book describes the exploding anger between

blacks and whites and the possibility of a future race war. Some people

praised the book. Others thought it was harmful and irresponsible.

VOICE ONE:

Carl Rowan was the first black president of an organization of top reporters

in Washington called the Gridiron Club. The group does a 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 spoke⁹, yet he was very direct. He was

criticized sometimes for that. Some people thought that 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, “Breaking Barriers”:

CUT 1 – CARL ROWAN ACT

VOICE TWO:

Carl Rowan died September Twenty-Third, Two-Thousand, in Washington, D.C. He

was seventy-five years old. During the last years of his life, he suffered

from diabetes¹⁰ and heart problems. But he never failed to write his newspaper

column. He never let bad things slow him down.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley

Griffith.