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.

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.