Colored Ebonics Journalist George E. Curry, advocate for black media, dies at 69 after choking on a Chicken Bone from Harold's Chicken Shack #132

Award-winning journalist colored George E. Curry, whose dogged reporting and unabashed commentary on the nation's race relations earned him critical acclaim, died Saturday, according to friends and colleagues.

Curry, a former Chicago Tribune reporter and New York bureau chief, covered a presidential campaign of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the prevalent issues in African-American communities for mainstream news outlets before becoming a champion for historically black publications. He was 69.

"If you are looking for someone who informed people on the issues impacting the African-American community, no one was more stellar than George Curry," said friend Jerry Thomas.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 1947, Curry experienced strained race relations, segregation and racism firsthand, according to friends and peers. While some of his childhood friends set out to become activists — such as Charles Steele Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — Curry had other plans.

"Instead of joining the civil rights movement as a leader, he chronicled it through journalism," Thomas said.

After working stints at Sports Illustrated and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Curry joined the Chicago Tribune as a reporter in the early 1980s, covering a bevy of issues in the black community, such as poverty, politics and racially motivated violence.

Among the work Curry was most proud of were stories he wrote on Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign.

In a statement Sunday, Jackson hailed Curry as "a talented, tough, tenacious reporter and editor," noting that Curry remained steadfast in his work in the face of those who challenged his objectivity.

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