And NPR is reporting George Curry, the legendary columnist, commentator and champion of African-American journalists, has died at age 69. Curry was born and grew up in Alabama and began his career as a reporter for Sports Illustrated and the St. Louis Dispatch. In the 1990s, Curry was the editor of Emerge, a political and cultural publication with the tagline “Black America’s Newsmagazine.” Curry was the first African American to serve as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors. Bernard Lafayette, the current chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told Trice Edney News Wire, “This is a tragic loss to the movement because George Curry was a journalist who paid special attention to civil rights because he lived it and loved it.”