Reginald Bryant, 68, Phila. journalist

Reginald Bryant, 68, of East Mount Airy, a Philadelphia radio and TV host, a labor union spokesman, and a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, died of cancer at the Cliveden Convalescent Center in Mount Airy on Monday, April 5.

Sandra D. Long, the first African American woman to become a managing editor of The Inquirer, recalled that she and Mr. Bryant were among the 44 founders of the NABJ in 1975.

"Reginald Bryant was an extraordinary journalist," Long said. "He had a sharp wit and held high journalistic standards."

Acel Moore, associate editor emeritus of The Inquirer and the first African American on the paper's editorial board, said Mr. Bryant was "a communicator ahead of his time.

"Reggie was a professional provocateur, very dynamic and skillful."

Moore noted that "underneath that cover of confrontation and dissent was a very caring man who mentored young people."

Mr. Bryant and Moore were the hosts of Black Perspective on the News from 1973 to 1978, when they were succeeded by Philadelphia Daily News columnist Chuck Stone.

Moore recalled that in 1973, he and Mr. Bryant met with Stone and Bulletin columnist Claude Lewis to form the Philadelphia organization known as the Association of Black Journalists.

In 1975, Moore said, they went to Washington to be among the 44 who founded the national organization.

Among them was Joe Davidson, a reporter for the Bulletin and The Inquirer and now a columnist with the Washington Post.

Davidson recalled that Mr. Bryant "could be obstinate, uncompromising. . . . He displayed his obstinance and took uncompromising positions in a principled stance on behalf of black people and in the interest of justice."

Mr. Bryant had several public roles over the decades.

Since 2006, he had been host of In Pursuit of Truth, a talk show from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays on Philadelphia radio station WURD-AM (900).

"He was on the air as recently as February of this year," said WURD general manager David Brown.

Mr. Bryant also had worked as a talk-show host on radio station WHAT, as a full-time public relations official for AFSCME District Council 33, and as a talk-show host at Temple University radio station WRTI.

In December 1987, a Daily News editorial noted that while identifying himself as "an intellectual-property broker," he had received a $70,000, four-month city contract to improve the image of the Department of Human Services.

The editorial questioned whether Mr. Bryant was attempting too much, reporting that his consulting firm had also received a $150,000 city contract "to produce a documentary reflecting on the history of blacks in the United States."

A 1975 news story identified him as an associate professor of art at the Philadelphia College of Art, at a time when he was also coproducer with Moore of Black Perspective.

It was that program that made Mr. Bryant's reputation.

"The perspective of the questions is always black," Moore said in a 1974 Inquirer interview.

"But we try to pick guests who are interesting to both races. And we don't back off from anybody: The questions we ask blacks are just as tough as those we ask whites."

Born in East Mount Airy, Mr. Bryant graduated from Central High School, earned a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in fine arts, both from Temple University, and a master film teacher certificate from the American Film Institute.

A WURD biography stated that after getting his art degree at Temple, Mr. Bryant taught in the Neshaminy School District by day and worked "with hostile gang members by night," completing a film documentary on teenage gangs.

Survivors and services were not immediately available.