Pioneering Black Journalist Dale Wright Dies at 86

By: E&P Staff Dale R. Wright, the black reporter who integrated the newsroom at the old New York World-Telegram and Sun, has died. He was 86.

Daughter Kimberly Wright-King told the Associated Press her father died Dec. 13 in a Bronx nursing home of chronic kidney disease and cardiopulmonary arrest.

Wright's 10-article series in the early 1960s on the plight of migrant workers won awards, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and led to legislation to improve working conditions.

The AP reported that Wright also worked as a press secretary to former New York Mayor Edward Koch, the late Sen. Jacob K. Javits and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, and owned a public relations firm that represented New York-area black businesses.

Wright is survived by his daughter and a son.