Carl Rowan Files Suit Against Chicago Sun-Times Alleging Race, Age Discrimination

Jet, July 26, 1999

Award-winning nationally syndicated columnist Carl T. Rowan has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Sun-Times, charging that the newspaper found him too old, too Black and too liberal, according to a Washington Post story.

Rowan, 73, was a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 30 years.

He is demanding $1 million in compensatory damages, the newspaper reported. The suit was initially filed in Washington, D.C., Superior Court in March, and later shifted to federal court, the paper said.

"It was very clear to me that this was a very conservative group and they were trying to goad me into retiring after 30-some years," Rowan told the Washington Post. `This is very destructive of all the efforts that I and others have been making to achieve diversity in the newspaper business."

Sun-Times attorney Bruce Sanford told the Post: "These charges were never made at the time. It all smells of litigation complaint-writing.... "

Sanford said the Sun-Times was "stunned" by Rowan's lawsuit. Sun-Times Editor in Chief Nigel Wade stated, "He retired, and I wrote him a letter asking if he'd like to unretire. That's where we left it."

Rowan believes some news organizations such as the Sun-Times will get rid of Black journalists based on "race, age and ideology, anything," he told JET.

He added, "It sure does not encourage Blacks to enter journalism in Chicago. I found it so outrageous that I stopped letting them run my column and I filed suit."

Rowan's column appeared in the Sun-Times three times a week. But he believes the paper was shifting its focus to issues of interest to the White suburban readers.

"They wanted to be the newspaper of the White suburb, in other words, not the newspaper of the predominantly Black inner city," Rowan told JET.

The suit was filed by attorneys B. Michael Rauh and John Ray of Manatt, Phelps &Phillips, LLP in Washington, D.C.

Rowan alleges in the lawsuit that the newspaper's "management entered upon a calculated policy of changing the character of the Sun-Times so that it would be oriented to and appeal more toward the White suburbs surrounding Chicago...."

The suit states, "It was inconsistent with (the Sun-Times') new policies ... to continue publishing three columns each week by Mr. Rowan, who is an African-American and who was then and continues to be highly supportive of African-American and civil rights causes."

As a result, the suit alleges the Sun-Times "wilfully, wantonly, maliciously and deliberately entered upon a course of action.... designed with a discriminatory purpose against Mr. Rowan on account of his race, either to terminate the employment or to force Mr. Rowan to conclude that his services ... were effectively being terminated...."

Rowan also alleges that the newspaper's top management "expressed bias against older persons and wanted to "replace him with younger columnists."

The suit maintains that Rowan "suffered personal and professional humiliation and loss of prestige on account of his race ... and age and suffered substantial economic damages."

Rowan, who had a leg amputated due to diabetes, still has his column featured in more than 100 papers, including the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the New York Post.

"I lost a leg, not my mind," he quipped.

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times is hoping the matter can be resolved. "They'd be happy to have him back anytime," Sanford told the Post. "He had a glorious run for many decades at the Chicago Sun-Times."

Rowan's attorney John Ray told the Post, "That's their position now, after the suit's filed. That was not their position before."

Despite his lawsuit, Rowan encourages young Black journalists not to be discouraged by the predominantly White news profession.

He told JET, "I'd say, Come on in and fight. There's nothing any Black person is going to get in this country that they don't fight for. But I couldn't just stand still and watch this going on and do nothing."