Carl Thomas Rowan (1925–2000) was an American government official, journalist and author. Carl Rowan was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee, the son of Johnnie, a cook and cleaner, and Thomas Rowan, who stacked lumber. He was raised in McMinnville, in that state. Rowan was determined to get a good education. He graduated from Bernard High School in 1942 as class president and valedictorian. He studied at Tennessee State University and Washburn University. He was one of the first African Americans to serve as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy. Rowan was also a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He was graduated from Oberlin College and was awarded a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He began his career in journalism writing for the African-American newspapers Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder. He went on to be a copywriter for The Minneapolis Tribune, and later became a staff writer, reporting extensively on the Civil Rights Movement.
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We emphasize that we believe in change because we were born of it, we have lived by it, we prospered and grew great by it. So the status quo has never been our god, and we ask no one else to bow down before it.
—Carl Rowan
Topics: Change
There aren’t any embarrassing questions—just embarrassing answers.
—Carl Rowan
It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.
—Carl Rowan
The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history.
—Carl Rowan
Topics: Learning, Libraries
A minority group has “arrived” only when it has the right to produce some fools and scoundrels without the entire group paying for it.
—Carl Rowan
Topics: Prejudice
Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.
—Carl Rowan
Topics: Action
My advice to any diplomat who wants to have a good press is to have two or three kids and a dog.
—Carl Rowan
Topics: Diplomacy
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