How Did I Get Here? The Force Within

Jean is pictured holding the Emmy WQED Digital Producer Annette Banks won for "A Crowning Achievement," a 2020 Black History Month video depicting Jean Bryant's work with Youth. Besides the Emmy, "Crowning Achievement" also won the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Award and a Golden Quill Award.

A native of Roselle, New Jersey, Jean Bryant was a journalist for the New Jersey Afro-American Newspaper before moving to Pittsburgh in 1972, when she was hired at the Pittsburgh Press. She worked there 20 years until its demise in 1993. Later, she joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and retired in 1999.

In 1973, she established the Miss Black Teenage Pageant, an annual self-improvement program. In 1993, Bryant also founded Mister African American, an anti-violence program for young men.

Some of the young people who attended her programs are successful lawyers, ministers, teachers, actors, businessmen and women, doctors and members of the judicial system. Over a 30-year period, her programs provided about $500,000 in educational scholarships, including tuition-free scholarships to Clarion University.

Bryant is a member of Macedonia Baptist Church in the Hill District and the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation. She also is president of the Stanton Heights Community Organization and a member of New Horizon Theater's Auxiliary Board.