The Hill District, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Homestead Grays and August Wilson.
The Hill
From before the First World War, the Hill District was the cultural center of Black life in Pittsburgh and a major center of jazz. Black entrepreneurs ran nightspots along Wylie Avenue, Fullerton Street and Centre Avenue, the Crawford Grill among the best known.
In the summer of 1956, about 1,300 buildings in the Lower Hill were razed, displacing about 1,500 families, more than 8,000 people, to clear the way for the Civic Arena and its parking.
The Pittsburgh Courier
In 1907 the poet Edwin Nathaniel Harleston began printing the Pittsburgh Courier at his own expense. Robert L. Vann became its editor and stayed until his death in 1940, and by 1938 it was the largest Black weekly in America. In February 1942, after a reader, James G. Thompson, wrote in proposing a second V for victory, the Courier launched the Double V campaign: victory over fascism abroad and over racism at home.
The Homestead Grays
In 1912 Cumberland Posey formed the Homestead Grays in Homestead, across the river from Pittsburgh. Josh Gibson rejoined the club in 1937 and, with Buck Leonard, powered the Grays to first place in the Negro National League in ten of twelve seasons from 1937 to 1948. The city's other great team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, played at Greenlee Field.
August Wilson
August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in the Hill District, the fourth of six children, and he grew up there with a strong mother whose influence shaped his plays. Nine of the ten plays in his Pittsburgh Cycle, also called the Century Cycle, are set in the Hill, and two of them, Fences and The Piano Lesson, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Black Pittsburgh Today
The August Wilson Center for African American Culture tells his story in its permanent exhibition, August Wilson: A Writer's Landscape. Across the city, Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Pittsburgh.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Pittsburgh on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The former Carnegie Library branch in the Hill District. Photo: Cbaile19, CC0, Wikimedia Commons The August Wilson African American Cultural Center. Photo: Cbaile19, CC0, Wikimedia Commons