PABJ 1973
FROM THE LEGENDS WHO LIVED IT

PAUL BENNETT

Paul Bennett was a reporter at the Philadelphia Tribune. He was the principal writer of the chapter's bylaws as part of a three-person committee.

"The professional black journalism community wasn't that big back then," he said. "We all knew each other socially, so it was verbal outreach. I was extremely gung-ho, young, impressionable and up for anything at the time. I was the author of the bylaws, but I was part of a committee with Warner Brown, who's now with the Washington Post. They were used as a framework for the national organization."

"To be honest, the organization was plagued by egos from day one. People don't understand sometimes that the organization isn't the sum of its parts. It's what the mission is. We had the daily folks versus the weekly folks versus the TV and radio folks when it came to deciding who the 'real journalists' are."

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