PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Carl Rowan

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -August 18, 2002: Carl Rowan

By Cynthia Kirk
Broadcast:
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.

((THEME)
)

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 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.

(Photo -Scott
Maclay)
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.

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.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

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.

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.

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’s 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.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

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 “acting⁶ white.
”
He deplored⁷ the idea that excellence⁸ 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.

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
Advancement⁹ 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 spoke¹⁰, 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, DC. He was seventy-five years old.
During the last years of his life, he suffered from diabetes¹¹ and heart problems. But he never failed to write his
newspaper column. He never let bad things slow him down.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of
America.

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1 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

4 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

5 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 deplored   

v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They deplored the price of motor car, textiles, wheat, and oil. 他们悲叹汽车、纺织品、小麦和石油的价格。 来自辞典例句
• Hawthorne feels that all excess is to be deplored. 霍桑觉得一切过分的举动都是可悲的。 来自辞典例句

8 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

9 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。