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www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 114 No. 51 Two Sections
DECEMBER 20-26, 2023
Jean Bryant, creator of the famed Miss Black Teenage Pageant, dies at 91 Journalism career spanned nearly three decades at Pittsburgh Press, Post-Gazette by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Jean Bryant came to Pittsburgh for work, but it was her unwavering desire to uplift and inspire Black youth that was her true calling. It’s something that Pittsburghers will never forget. Bryant, the creator of the Miss Black Teenage Pageant, and later the Mister African American, died on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at the North Hills Skilled Nursing and Rehab Center, where she was recovering from a fall she suffered in August. She was 91. Throughout the Pittsburgh area, and even in other parts of the country, people who knew Bryant described her as “fearless,” a “risk-taker,” “genuine,” and “motherly.” The woman who was bold enough to wear gold hair before most anyone else in town. The woman who, even though she could have tooted her own horn as a Black woman working at the Pittsburgh Press in 1972, spoke out about the lack of Black journalists in town. She spoke out against the lack of opportunities for Black girls being showcased, as their White counterparts were all over TV in pageants for “Miss America this” and “Miss America that.” They told her Pittsburgh was a “shot and a beer town,” and having a Black teenage pageant would never work here. Well, that’s why they called Bryant fearless. She did it anyway. In 1973, her newspaper, the Pittsburgh Press, wrote that applications were being accepted “for the first Miss Black Teenage Allegheny County beauty pageant... open to girls 13 to 16 who have a good appearance and a performing talent.” “The standards of beauty our society has adhered to in the past didn’t encom-
pass the beauty of Black women,” Bryant was quoted in the story. Renee Moore recalled being on that stage in 1973 with, among others, Tamara Tunie. They stood there, hoping to be the first Miss Black Teenage Allegheny County. Moore won. Both Moore and Tunie credit Bryant and their participation in the pageant in helping their confidence rise to the next level. Tunie didn’t turn out too bad...she’s the famous actress who starred in the soap opera “As The World Turns” and as the medical examiner in NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” There are hundreds of other Black girls who, between ages 12 and 17, were on that pageant stage, whether it was held at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland, or at a local church auditorium, and continue to cherish their participation in it, years, decades later. Bryant’s longtime friend, Joyce Meggerson-Moore, Ph.D., was a judge in most of the pageants. “She always wanted them (the girls) to be the best at whatever they were going to be in JEAN BRYANT
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‘My son is not dead; he still lives with me.’
Tina Ford’s M.O.M.S. organization a beacon of light for grieving mothers by Genea L. Webb For New Pittsburgh Courier
Tina Ford has big plans for her Mothers of Murdered Sons (M.O.M.S.) group for 2024. She founded the group in 2019 after her 23-year-old son, Armani Ford, was shot and killed that same year in Clairton. “We will go out and visit women and we’re going to be there for these women because they need us,” Ford said. “I have contractors that are willing to provide their services for free to grieving mothers. Those services include hairdos, small house repairs, getting nails done. All of these people will
come to the grieving mother’s home and provide services to the women who need and want them so that if they don’t have transportation, we will come to them.” M.O.M.S.’ mission is to provide support throughout the grieving process and beyond. “This group is important because it’s a safe space, a healing place for those who have gone through this to have people to lean on and it’s also a place for those of us who haven’t directly gone through it can provide support,” explained Jean Gressem-Jacobs, a childhood friend of Ford. She was a commentator during a fundrais-
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ing event held on Dec. 9 entitled, “Moms Without Crowns,” at the UPMC Health Plan Neighborhood Center in East Liberty. Several mothers who have lost their sons to gun violence spoke at the event and shared their heart-wrenching stories of losing their sons. Clairton resident Beverly Maxwell Warfield lost her son, George Maxwell, 23 years ago, but she finds solace in being a part of the M.O.M.S. group. “What these young people don’t understand is that when they kill someone, they are not just taking the life of the person they killed, but they are killing the lives of two families and it has to stop,” Warfield said. “My son was shot and killed taking up for someone else. He was mischievous at SEE FORD A7
TINA FORD, CRYSTAL COATES (PHOTO BY GENEA L. WEBB)