Carl T. Rowan (1925-2000) was a journalist, author, and television commentator. He was a staff writer at the Minneapolis Tribune in the 1950s and wrote extensively about the civil rights movement. He wrote a syndicated column for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1966 to 1998, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 for his commentary. Rowan also was a commissioned officer in the Navy during World War II, was appointed Deputy Secretary of State by John F. Kennedy, and served as ambassador to Finland in 1963. In 1964-1965 he served as Director of the United States Information Agency. Rowan was the first African American to attend meetings of the National Security Council.  He was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the National Press Club in 1999, and in 2001 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dedicated the State Department’s press briefing room as the Carl T. Rowan Briefing room.