The decolorizing bacterial consortium H1-H5 capable of decoloring reactive brilliant red X-3B effectively were screened out from an activated sludge treatment in a laboratory by the directional domestication and their decolorization performances were studied. Results showed that the decolorizing bacterial consortium showed certain salt tolerance in decolorization. The bacterial consortium H5 could remain a decolorization rate of 86% under 15% salinity and 100 mg·L^-1 reactive brilliant red X-3B after 24 h. The decolorizing bacterial consortium H1-H5 could quickly decolor at a low concentration of dye (＜600 mg·L^-1). In a range of 800-1500 mg·L^-1, the decolorization rate could reach more than 95% after 48 h. At the same time, optimal conditions for the decolorization of reactive brilliant red X - 3B were pH 5-11, 25-37℃ and culture for 24 h，and the decolorization rate was higher than 90% when the initial concentration of reactive brilliant red X-3B was 500 mg·L^-1. H5 had a good decolorization performance for direct scarlet 4BS and disperse brilliant blue KN-R, and the decolorization rate was higher than 90% after 24 h. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed that the dominant bacteria were bacilli in the decolorizing bacterial consortium H5. Microbial community of the decolorizing bacterial consortium was investigated via Illumina MiSeq high throughput sequencing．The result indicated that Alcaligenes sp. (55.78%) and Pseudomonas sp. (11.14%) were two dominating bacteria.