Voting Station

Carl Rowan

Please vote to return to collections.

Commentator

The Resume

    (August 11, 1925-September 23, 2000)
    Born in Ravencroft, Tennessee
    Staff writer for the Minneapolis Tribune (1950-61)
    US Ambassador to Finland (1963-64)
    US Information Agency Director (1964-65)
    Columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times (1966-98)
    Panelist on 'Inside Washington' (1967-96)
    Wrote 'South of Freedom' (1952), 'The Pitiful and the Proud' (1956), 'Wait Til Next Year: The Life Story of Jackie Robinson' (1960), 'Just Between Us Blacks' (1974), 'Breaking Barriers: A Memoir' (1991), 'Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall' (1993) and 'The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call' (1996)

Why he might be annoying:

    He resigned from the US Information Agency after being accused of trying to dictate a pro-administration bias to stories broadcast by the Voice of America.
    He wrote, 'If you gave Clarence Thomas a little flour on his face, you'd think you had David Duke talking.'
    He called for 'a law that says anyone found in possession of a handgun except a legitimate officer of the law goes to jail - period.'
    He used an unregistered handgun to shoot a teenaged trespasser (June 14, 1988).
    He escaped any punishment when the jury deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He grew up poor during the Depression, writing in his autobiography of living with 'no electricity, no running water, no toothbrushes... no telephone, no radio and no regular inflow of money.'
    He was the first African-American to attend meetings of the National Security Council.
    He received the Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement from the National Press Club (1999).
    The State Department press room was named the Carl T. Rowan Briefing Room (2001).
    He admitted in his biography that he was vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy over his gun control advocacy.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 90.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 74 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 23 Votes: 43.48% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 15 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 15 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 53 Votes: 54.72% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 41 Votes: 56.10% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 29 Votes: 55.17% Annoying