Les Payne, African American Journalism, African American Activist, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN

Les Payne, Journalist Who Exposed Racial Injustice, Dies at 76 | The New York Times

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Les Payne, Journalist Who Exposed Racial Injustice, Dies at 76 | The New York Times



[dropcap]His[/dropcap] death was confirmed by his son Jamal. Mr. Payne, who lived in Harlem, apparently had a heart attack and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, his family said. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″]

Beginning in 1969, when he joined Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, Mr. Payne exposed inequality and racial injustice wherever he found it, whether it was apartheid in South Africa, illegally segregated schools in the American South or redlining by real estate agents in suburban New York.

Les Payne, African American Journalism, African American Activist, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN

He was on the reportorial team that won a Pulitzer for public service in 1974 for a 33-part series, “The Heroin Trail,” which traced a narcotics scourge from its source in Turkey to the mean streets of America.