Homegoing: Les Brownlee, pioneer African American journalist

Les Brownlee, the first African American reporter for white-owned media in Chicago, died Monday at the age of 90.

He had been ill with congestive heart failure and cancer, spending his last three weeks in Evanston Hospital. Shortly before his death, he finished his autobiography, which is tentatively titled: "Les Brownlee, Autobiography of Pioneer Black Journalist and His 'Fairy-Tale Life.'" Marion Street Press in Oak Park will publish it.

Brownlee joined the Chicago Defender in 1948 after earning a bachelor's degree in journalism at Northwestern University where he later obtained his master's.

He wrote for Ebony while in college and Sepia magazine later as a …