One of the nation's most prominent Afro-American television journalists died last Sunday in Pittsburgh at the age of 74.
Loran Mann, who was also a minister for the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), was remembered and honored by local community figures and broadcasters on Monday, reports Christianity Today.
"He was a lion of the Gospel," Episcopal Bishop Dorsey McConnell, who collaborated with Mann on social justice matters, said to Trib Live.
McConnell added that Mann was a "pastor's pastor" whose influence cut through both racial and denominational lines.
According to the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, Mann was a trailblazer who encouraged numerous people of color to pursue careers in the media. While shepherding his growing Pentecostal flock, he worked as a disk jockey, then a TV news anchor, and finally a radio station general manager.
Dee Thompson, one of the Black Media Federation's members, said that Mann was "one of the first Black journalists in radio and television in Pittsburgh."
"Loran was a leader of publishing, not just in the Black community in Pittsburgh, but also in the larger community. Not only in Pittsburgh, all around the country."
A Brief Look At His Life
Loran was born on August 8, 1946, in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was one of William and Johnnie Lee Mann's seven children. When he was 13, his family migrated north as part of the Great Migration, as thousands of African-Americans left ethnic terror in the segregated South in search of economic opportunities in Northern and Western towns.
Mann had his first writing position at the Pittsburgh Press when he was 15, delivering typed news from reporters to editors and back. He majored in sociology and minored in journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, and pondered if he, like his father, could be called to ministry.
Mann opposed the notion of ministry until he wrecked his motorcycle and fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the side of a church a short time later.
"There won't be a third chance," a voice said which Mann believed as God's.
At the age of 20, he attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained in COGIC in 1966. He thought it was the end of his broadcasting career, but he was mistaken.
In 1968, he was traveling in an elevator with James Psihoulis (a local legend also known as Jimmy Pol), owner of a local radio station, host of a polka music show, and composer of the Pittsburgh Steelers' iconic war song. "I'd like to bring you on the radio," Psihoulis said when he noticed Mann's deep, warm accent.
Mann expressed interest in doing that as well.
He was the first Black disc jockey several residents in Western Pennsylvania saw at station WZUM. He went to KDKA and became the first Black radio show anchor in the country a couple years back. He assisted the stations in integrating their songs, blending the best of R&B and rock 'n' roll from the time period.
Mann made the transition to broadcasting in 1975, joining WPXI-TV, a local NBC station in Pittsburgh. He was a field reporter who spent the day in the neighborhood in a TV bus, searching for news and covering it live.
At the same time, Mann was pastoring a small church in East Liberty that he had established, a Black community that had been culturally ravaged by "white flight, redlining, and city planning." Just 19 participants attended the first service of the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ. The church, on the other hand, quickly developed into a vibrant community.
From Mondays through Fridays, Mann appeared on TV news from 5:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., before turning his focus to the church.
In the 1990s, he said: "I do the whole gamut of religious duties. I teach a Tuesday evening Bible class and every Thursday night I am at choir rehearsal. I am an organist and I like to do a feature every Sunday with the choir. Friday is pastoral service where I deal with the congregation as a family. Of course, I do preach sermons."
When working at Channel 11, he was called upon to fulfill religious roles on occasion. He was once ordered to marry two TV station workers just on spur of the moment, and he did so in the audience. In another day, he was forced to bury a neglected and deceased child on Easter Sunday.
People seemed to react to Mann's pastoral involvement, according to a station manager. They would open up to him even though they had no idea he was a minister.
However, not everybody was pleased with the pastor-news reporter. A guy arrived at the station with a meat cleaver and a .25-caliber gun in 1990. He said he was going to kill Mann to the cab driver who dropped him off. The driver called the cops, and the guy was quickly apprehended.
Mann said his job at the church was influenced by his background as a TV reporter.
"As a reporter you see the world as it really turns-the murder, the violence, corruption, rampant disease. All these things are referenced in the Bible and I see it first hand," he said. "Everyday as a reporter I'm dealing in predominantly bad news. But when I come before my congregation I always have Good News."
Mann left the television industry in 1996. He reported on a murder whilst standing outside in the rain on his last day.
His Final Years
Many COGIC churches were particularly hard hit when the pandemic struck in 2020. However, because of Mann's television background, the Pentecostal Temple did stronger than others. The church was one of the first to implement online worship.
On Facebook Live, the 73-year-old Mann stood on the stage as the camera was set up, then stared through the lens like the expert he was, saying, "I'm so glad you've tuned in tonight," in the same rich voice that once prompted Jimmy Pol to give him a career.
Mann was named to COGIC's governing board of 12 elders the next year, taking up responsibilities for the global church's 8.8 million members, which had been ravaged by COVID-19. In March, he was sworn in as President.
When he died on May 2, he was due to preach. The cause of his death is yet to be revealed.
