1966 was a time of change for Dr. Bryant. He transitioned out of his role at the Michigan Children’s Institute. During the summer, he took on a position as a Senior Clinical Social Worker at the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp, a treatment and research program for severely traumatized children. After working with children for so many years, Dr. Bryant noticed the disparity in the treatment received by White and Black children. Following his summer position, Dr. Bryant began his doctorate in education at the University of Michigan, where he studied educational psychology.   

His summer position at the Fresh Air Camp also led him to meet his future wife, Jean Carlberg. This fortuitous meeting prompted over 60 years of partnership and activism. When they met, Carlberg was a member of a local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Meanwhile, Dr. Bryant had just been denied an apartment rental in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, Carlberg, Dr. Bryant, and resources from CORE worked to fight for housing equality. First, they had to prove discrimination took place. CORE sent two White students to ask if apartments were available to rent. Dr. Bryant would go to the same building to ask the same questions before and after these students. While the white students were told there was a vacancy, Dr. Bryant was told there were none. With this evidence, Dr. Bryant, Carlberg, and CORE took this housing discrimination case to the Michigan Supreme Court. In an interview for a special edition of Stewards magazine that honored his time at the University of Michigan, Dr. Bryant credited Carlberg with helping him challenge existing discriminatory racial norms (Merrill, 2012).

And challenge he did. While working on his doctorate, he was a student activist fighting for civil rights, peace, women’s rights, and an end to environmental racism. Off-campus, Dr. Bryant tried to get a haircut at a Whites-only barbershop as part of a civil disobedience action. On campus, he took part in the 1970 Ecology Teach-In and the Black Action Movement takeover. These actions intended to disrupt and garner the attention of decision-makers purposefully. Dr. Bryant obtained his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan in 1970. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1970, he traveled to England to pursue his post-doctoral work on Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester.

As he undertook his doctorate and post-doctoral positions, Dr. Bryant was also an Assistant Project Director at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR) from 1968 to 1979. Much of his work at ISR focused on the Civil Rights Movement and providing intervention, mediation, and negotiation in racial conflicts within schools and educational arenas. He was also active in the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) as a process consultant. However, a series of events unfolded that led Dr. Bryant to the School of Natural Resources (later renamed School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) and now called School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS).

            The Institute for Social Research was undergoing a priority shift in terms of the funding provided to projects. At the same time, SEAS was undergoing organizational and curricular changes. While Dr. Bryant was working at ISR, he received a call from a SEAS professor, Dr. William Stapp, encouraging him to consider a position at the school. Dr. Stapp was familiar with Dr. Bryant’s work in the civil rights, negotiations, education, and group processes. Dr. Stapp thought that these skills would complement the ecology curriculum quite well.

            In interviews and his subsequent memoir, Dr. Bryant readily admitted that he did not know anything about the environment, as he did not have a background in natural resources. He also did not have any interest in the environment. Nonetheless, after much encouragement, he participated in the hiring and interviewing process and gave two presentations to faculty and students. At the time, social issues were just emerging within the traditional ecology and forestry curricula.

Thus, Dr. Bryant became an assistant professor of Natural Resources at SEAS in 1972. Dr. Bryant was the first African American faculty member at the University of Michigan, SEAS. By lobbying others and developing a strong support network, Dr. Bryant and his colleagues implemented an Environmental Advocacy curricular track at the school. Dr. Bryant emphasized the crucial roles that Dr. Jim Crowfoot, Dr. Bill Stapp, and students played in this success. Together, they built a strong learning community that included student-led workshops, retreats, and dinners. Dr. Bryant progressed throughout his career by being dedicated to his work and earning the respect of others.           

Dr. Bryant’s career was full of many accomplishments. However, he was most proud of helping to develop the Environmental Justice Program at SEAS and creating the Environmental Justice Initiative (also in SEAS). The Environmental Justice program has attained the status of one of the major programs in the school, serving as a model for similar programs. The Program was the first in the country to offer a full slate of environmental justice courses and specializations leading to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in environmental justice. The Environmental Justice Initiative provides information, resources, and support to environmental justice organizations and communities needing help. 

Dr. Bryant gained a national reputation for his scholarly work and environmental justice activism. From 1977 to 1797, Dr. Bryant was a board member of the Ecology Center. He and his colleague, Dr. Paul Mohai, played important roles in the early environmental justice movement. In 1990, they organized the Michigan Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards: A Time for Discourse at SEAS. This seminal conference would go on to have tremendous impacts. At the time, this event was the first academic conference, attended mainly by Black and Brown scholars, to discuss how environmental hazards disproportionately affected marginalized populations. The attendees became leading figures in the environmental justice field and lifelong friends of Dr. Bryant. Attendees included Drs. Dorceta Taylor, Ivette Perfecto, Robert Bulard, Beverly Wright, and Charles Lee, to name a few.

The Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards significantly advanced the field of environmental justice. During the conference, participants drafted and sent a letter to the EPA, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The letter informed the heads of these groups about environmental injustice and urged them to take action. As a result, William Reilly, the U.S. EPA Administrator at the time, met with a group of eight Conference participants, including Drs. Bryant and Mohai. The Conference and this meeting led to the U.S. EPA creating the Office of Environmental Equity, which would then become the Office of Environmental Justice. The attendees also contributed chapters to a book titled Race and the Incidence of Environmental Justice, published in 1992. Race and the Incidence of Environmental Justice became one of the first academic books to investigate how race, class, and environmental hazards were interlinked.

In 1990, frequent collaborators Drs. Bryant and Mohai were designated as the faculty investigators for the University of Michigan Detroit Area Study on Race and Environmental Hazards. The Detroit Area Study conducted the first survey on White and African American attitudes toward environmental issues in and around Detroit. This study was also the first to examine the intersection of class and race and the locations of hazardous waste sites and polluting facilities in Detroit through an environmental justice lens.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 - Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority and Low-Income Populations. Both the book and conference contributed to the signing of this Executive Order. Dr. Bryant was invited to witness President Clinton’s signing, but he declined. Although Dr. Bryant declined the visit, the extension of the invitation from the White House demonstrated how the U.S. Executive Office recognized his influential work.

Drs. Bryant and Mohai were also active in the Michigan Coalition, a group of conferees who formed an advisory group to the EPA and worked with the agency on developing early environmental justice guidelines. The Michigan Coalition also helped to organize the First National People of Color Summit. Since then, Dr. Bryant has sat on numerous local, state, and national environmental justice committees. He has also published many articles and book chapters on the topic.

            Dr. Bryant acknowledged that environmental justice work and research were not always fully supported. However, he continued to work in the field because he believed it was important for minorities to have access to all resources and to protect their communities. Dr. Bryant received many awards, including the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship at the University of Michigan for outstanding teaching and work with undergraduates in 2000, the Outstanding Alumni Award from his high school in Flint in 2001, the Ernest A. Lynton Award for Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach in 2004, the Lifetime Leadership Award from his hometown of Flint in 2008, and the Environmental Justice Champion Award at the Fling Environmental Justice Summit in 2017. 

              In addition to teaching at SEAS, Dr. Bryant hosted workshops regarding racism and race relations for the University of Michigan’s Medical School and the School of Social Work. Although his main appointment was at SEAS, Dr. Bryant was also a professor of the Taubman Center for Urban Planning and the Center for African-American and African Studies. He was the Director of the Environmental Justice Initiative from 1995 to 2012. Despite retiring in 2012, Dr. Bryant held the title of Professor Emeritus until his passing. Dr. Bryant was also active with various community groups working to increase capacity in minority areas.

He enjoyed poetry and the arts. In 2002, he founded and directed the Environmental Justice Theatre Troupe. He also organized the first Environmental Justice Slam in 2002, which was held on the University of Michigan campus.