Fire On The Prairie. The Pained Writing of Leanita McClain
Steve Rhodes
19 June 2009
One Comment
Chicago famously taught the late Tribune editorial writer Leanita McClain, the first African American to serve in that function at the paper, to hate white people, as she told the nation in the pages of the Washington Post in 1983.
McClain, who had suffered from depression through much of her life, committed suicide a year later.
The 25th anniversary of her death just passed us on May 30th. Here are a few links and comments that appeared around town, followed by excerpts from Gary Rivlin’s indispensable Fire On The Prairie about McClain’s frustrations inside (and out of) the Trib newsroom.
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- “Twenty five years ago today, I discovered that Leanita McClain, my friend and colleague, was dead,” writes former Trib colleague Monroe Anderson.
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Is that “pained” or “painful”? McLain writes like Mary Mitchell as a high school senior, without Mary’s hack-it-up Chicago charm.
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