Lerone Bennett, Jr. – a leading Black historian whose landmark book Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, 1619–1962 examined the contributions and legacy of African-Americans predating the Transatlantic Slave Trade – died this week at age 89. He had vascular dementia.
Bennett was, along with Dr. John Hope Franklin, one of the most acclaimed scholars of Black history in the U.S., from the 1950’s until the time of his death.
Born October 17, 1928 in Clarksdale, Miss. — a town known for native musicians such as Sam Cooke, Ike Turner, Son House and John Lee Hooker — Bennett was educated at Atlanta’s Morehouse College at the same time as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., under the presidency of the influential Dr. Benjamin Mays.
Bennett pursued graduate studies before working as a journalist for the Atlanta Daily World in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The Daily World was unique among the Black U.S. press at the time, when nearly all other Black newspapers based in major cities were published weekly.
He also was Atlanta city editor for EBONY magazine until 1953, when at the age of 25 he accepted a position as an associate editor at the most widely read monthly aimed at Black U.S. readers. There, Bennett distinguished himself with a series of features concerning little-known aspects of Black history, from antiquity to modernity. One such article in 195, was titled Thomas Jefferson’s Negro Grandchildren and traced several contemporary U.S. citizens back to Sally Hemings. In 1956, Bennett married the former Gloria Sylvester.
Two years later, Bennett was named executive editor at EBONY. Before The Mayflower, which he published in 1962, was excerpted in the magazine. For many, it was the first mainstream text to chronicle Black achievements in the Americas before colonization and outside the realm of enslavement. The Capital Press Club honored the work as Book of the Year.
“His writings helped to popularize and mainstream the study of the African diaspora for generations of Black folk domestically and internationally,” said Dr. Peniel Joseph, a professor of History and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that Bennett was “one of the true giants of Black history.”
