- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLerone Bennett Jr.
- Lerone Bennett was born on October 17, 1928 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA. He was married to Gloria Sylvester. He died on February 14, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- SpouseGloria Sylvester(July 21, 1956 - June 12, 2009) (her death, 4 children)
- ChildrenAlma JoyContanceCourtneyLerone III
- ParentsLerone Bennett SrAlma Reed
- He was a historian and journalist who wrote about the African American experience. He was an top editor at Ebony magazine for over 50 years.
- He started writing for a weekly black newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, when he was 12. He graduated from Morehouse College, earning money for tuition by playing saxophone in jazz bands. He was a journalist in Atlanta before moving to Chicago to work for Jet magazine. A year later, he joined Ebony magazine, where he worked into his 80s.
- Survived by his three daughters and several grandchildren.
- Parents are: Lerone Bennett, Sr, and Alma Reed.
- He was a classmate with Martin Luther King at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.
- I got this mad idea that if I could just find out why Mississippi was what it was, why racism existed, I would first of all be in a position to understand it, and secondly be in a position to maybe do something about it. This had nothing to do with academics. To me it was a question of survival: a matter of life and death.
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