Former Ebony Editor, Author Lerone Bennett Jr. Dies At 89

CHICAGO (AP) – African-American history author and former Ebony magazine editor Lerone Bennett Jr. has died in Chicago at age 89.

A.A. Rayner and Sons Funeral Home in Chicago said Thursday that Bennett died Tuesday. Ebony magazine tells the Chicago Sun-Times that Bennett had vascular dementia. The newspaper reports Bennett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and worked on his high school newspaper and the student newspaper at Morehouse College. He worked at Ebony for about 50 years.

His books included a biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

Ebony CEO Linda Johnson Rice said Bennett “was the guiding light for the editorial vision of Ebony.”

Bennett’s footprints are in pavement at the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta. His wife, Gloria, was a Jet journalist. She died in 2009. He’s survived by three children.

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Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/

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