Rowan honored for climb from poverty
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Located near where the Beersheba Towers apartment building stands today after an urban renewal revitalization project transformed the area in the late ’60s, that home was the source of humble beginnings by many accounts.
Rowan and his family lived there without electricity, running water or any of the modern conveniences, in addition to making do during the Great Depression and times when society was segregated.
Despite those beginnings and overcoming racial barriers, Rowan achieved honors in journalism and accolades on the national and international fronts, both in government and outside of government.
“He was one of ours,” McMinnville Mayor Royce Davenport said before the historical marker was unveiled for family, friends, local, state and national dignitaries Monday. “He’s from McMinnville and he made good – really good.”
Family friend Marvin Lusk wrote a thesis paper on Rowan during the late ’70s and read excerpts of it highlighting Rowan’s endeavors, noting his service under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Rowan was one of the first African Americans commissioned in the Navy. He returned to Tennessee after the Navy but was reportedly harassed by the highway patrol and resolved to leave the state.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in math from Oberlin College in Ohio and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. In 1948, he joined the staff of the Minneapolis Tribune. Rowan’s reporting talents are well documented, as are his reporting on race and segregation issues in his native South in the 1950s. He also authored several books.
In 1961, Kennedy appointed Rowan as deputy assistant to the secretary of state. Rowan became an ambassador to Finland in 1963 and in 1964, LBJ appointed Rowan as director of the U.S. Information Agency.
“There are very few people who had has as little as Carl Rowan and gave so much,” Lusk said after listing some of Rowan’s accomplishments, which occurred in spite of racial barriers.
“Here is a man who was recognized throughout the world,” Lusk added, noting Rowan never forgot about his beloved local teacher the late Bessie Gwyn, who taught at the segregated Bernard School and who later became the subject of a moving essay Rowan wrote for Reader’s Digest.
Rowan became a well-known commentator, was a Pulitzer prize finalist for his commentaries and was a syndicated columnist. He passed away in 2000 at 75.
Keynote speaker, second cousin Edward Powell of Nashville, said Monday immediate family members were not able to attend the event due to illness, but sent appreciative remarks along with Powell.
Rowan’s sister noted the family’s humble beginnings in McMinnville and Rowan’s financial contribution to his family, Powell said.
“As a kid, Carl picked up that responsibility and took it up on his own shoulders,” he said of the sister’s remarks about Rowan taking on jobs to contribute financially. “She said, ‘That must have been a tremendous burden for a young kid, 16 or 17 years old, to try to try to take care of three girls and a brother, but he did.'”
Powell also relayed profound stories of thievery and even a potential murder told to Rowan by a grandmother, Sarah Rowan, which may have inspired him to achieve greatness.
While many noted Rowan had strong feelings about his childhood in McMinnville, Davenport noted the changes in the community since Rowan grew up in McMinnville.
“He never forgot how he was treated here as a young boy. It always bothered him, so he might not have been comfortable to come back. I think today, not only would he see this area differently but he would see how we regarded him,” Davenport added in his remarks.
The marker program is coordinated by the state’s Tennessee Historical Commission.