B. F. Holman, 76, pioneering journalist

WASHINGTON - Benjamin F. Holman, 76, a pioneering newspaper and television reporter who also worked for the Justice Department and at the University of Maryland as a journalism professor, died Jan. 20 at George Washington University Hospital of complications from emphysema and congestive heart failure.

Mr. Holman, who broke through color barriers in the media, spent eight years as the director of community relations during the Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford administrations. He held status as assistant attorney general, and served as the Justice Department's highest-ranking African American. From the late 1960s through the late 1970s, he crisscrossed the country to help mediate racial disputes.

A year after going to the University of Maryland in 1978, and without the credentials of a doctorate, Mr. Holman became a full professor at what is now the university's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He played a key role in building the journalism program and mentoring hundreds of students over 25 years, before retiring in 2004.

Mr. Holman was born in Columbia, S.C. At age 4, his father died, and his mother moved with him and his sister to Bloomfield, N.J.

After finishing at the top of his high school class, he attended Lincoln University in Chester County and went on to graduate first in his class with a journalism degree from the University of Kansas. He later pursued graduate studies at the University of Chicago.

He spent two years in the Army as a driver with the historical division in Germany. He said he felt exiled in the motor pool, knowing that he was equipped to do more. But, he also wrote in his unfinished memoir, "by the time I had finished my Army tour in Germany, I had learned to fit comfortably in a biracial lifestyle."

Mr. Holman entered journalism as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News in 1952, at a time when only a few African Americans worked at large-city daily newspapers. He remained the Daily News's first and only black reporter for 10 years, often challenging both white and black communities with his coverage.

His series about problems in the Black Muslim movement, which the paper promoted by putting his picture on the sides of delivery trucks, led to him being beaten by those who did not like his reporting.

In 1962, Mr. Holman reported for radio in Chicago before becoming the first African American in television news in Chicago at CBS's WBBM-TV. He later joined CBS News in New York as a reporter.

The Johnson administration sought him in 1965, and he was named assistant director of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service. He created media relations programs to help the press deal with racial problems during the volatile days of the civil rights movement.

He was a network producer with NBC in Washington and an on-air correspondent for NBC News for a year. In 1969, Nixon appointed him director of the Community Relations Service, and was later renewed by Ford.

As the chief adviser on the nation's racial issues to the U.S. attorney general and the president, Mr. Holman dealt with the desegregation of public accommodations and schools; busing; police and community relations; and immigration, among other issues.

Survivors include his sister, Lillie Mae Holman.