Lerone Bennett Retires From Ebony

Special to the NNPA from the Chicago Defender CHICAGO (NNPA) – Lerone Bennett, the longtime executive editor of Ebony Magazine, has retired and been named executive editor emeritus, company officials say. Bennett, who has worked in a variety of positions at Ebony for 52 years, will continue to write several articles a year for the nation’s largest Black magazine. A company spokeswoman said Bennett is on a Black History Month tour and will be unavailable for comment until later this week. The release stated that ”Ebony managing editors Lynn Norment and Walter Leavy have assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations.” This is Bennett’s second time retiring. In September, Bennett, 75, announced that he was stepping down from the position, but after discussions with Ebony founder John H. Johnson Jr., he chose to continue as executive editor. In his career at Ebony, the Clarksdale, Miss., native has covered some of the biggest stories of the 20th century, including the March on Washington and the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. He started at Johnson Publishing Company as an associate editor at Jet Magazine, later becoming an associate editor and senior editor at Ebony. He was named executive editor in 1987. Considered one of the nation’s top historians, Bennett authored “Before The Mayflower: A History of Black America,” one of the most celebrated Black books in history; “Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream,” “What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” “Wade in the Water, The Shaping of Black America” and several others. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse College in 1949 and did graduate work at Atlanta University.