Pulitzer Prize recipient Leslie "Les" Payne
The following commentary was submitted by Mr. Boyd.
Leslie Payne was the consummate journalist, a reporter and editor of
unimpeachable integrity, and he could regale you with story after story
on the people he knew and covered during his remarkable career. The
journalism may have ended in 2006 when he retired, but he was still
working determinedly to complete his biography of Malcolm X. We will
have to wait on the status of that project. Payne, 76, died suddenly
Monday night at his home in Harlem.
It is hard for me to be objective about Les—and objectivity was one
of his calling cards—as he lived up the street from me and we would see
each other in the neighborhood on many occasions during our walks. Those
occasions allowed us to talk politics, and few were as up to date on
local, national and international affairs as he was.
Our last real extended conversation occurred in New Orleans at last
year’s National Association of Black Journalists Conference. We spent
time with Larry Goldbetter, president of the National Writers Union, and
Les told him about the NABJ and his role as one of the founders. He
also recalled for us the last time he was in New Orleans in 1993 when he
was president of the organization. Later that evening I would spend
time with his son, Jamal and several of his friends.
Last summer he enthralled my City College students with a
spellbinding recollection of Malcolm X during one of our stops on a tour
of Harlem not too far from his home and where Malcolm X worked at
Jimmy’s Chicken Shack. From that discussion I learned that he was
nearing completion of his research and writing on Malcolm that had
consumed his time for more than a quarter century.
During one of the last visits to his home we discussed the works of
H.L. Mencken; he had a shelf full of the writer’s books and was able to
quote chapter and verse on the man’s satire and linguistic skills. And
then there was his long elucidation on art—he was a devoted collector. I
remember meeting him once at Swann Gallery and listening to his
exchanges with the noted authority on African-American culture, Wyatt
Day.
Click here for the full article.
Herb Boyd, also an educator and best-selling author, was
in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where he
attended Wayne State University in the 1960s. Boyd went on to graduate
with his B.A. degree in philosophy from Wayne State University in 1969.
Source: http://www.thehistorymakers.org
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