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Historian Emma Pullen dead at 52

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- African-American historian, film writer, publicist and journalist Emma E. Pullen has died in Raleigh, N.C., of breast cancer at age 52.

Pullen died July 20 at Duke Health Raleigh Hospital, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

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Pullen last year directed Los Angeles' African Marketplace & Cultural Faire and was described by founder James Burks as "a cultural wizard."

She began her career as a reporter for The Washington Post and wrote for The Los Angeles Times in Washington and Los Angeles before becoming an independent film writer, producer and publicist.

Her 1997 documentary "Colors Straight Up" was nominated for an Academy Award. She wrote "And the Children Shall Lead," about racism in the South, which aired in 1985 as part of the PBS "Wonderworks" series and produced the short documentary "Marching Into the Millennium," an overview of black Angeleno history, for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Pullen was also a consultant to the William Grant Still Arts Center, which is devoted to African American art.

Pullen is survived by three sisters and a brother, all of North Carolina.

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