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Images courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Indigenous Peoples Day Protest
Nate Smith
Nate Smith was a prizefighter who bought his way into the construction union by giving four free tickets to a fight to union officials, and he became the first Black member of the construction union. He started Operation Dig, which he funded out of his own pocket, to train Black workers in construction so that the union couldn't use the "they're unqualified" excuse for not giving them union membership. He also founded the Black Construction Coalition, an activist organization that used fairly extreme tactics to get the construction union to diversify their membership - he actually laid in front of a moving bulldozer to force construction to halt at the Three Rivers Stadium. Because of his activism, he was a major target for violence and survived a couple drive-by shootings. His son’s gruesome murder (he was set on fire at a baseball game) was ordered by union officials.
Prominent Black Figures
In 1921, Rev. J. C. Austin, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, became president of the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP. Under Austin’s leadership, the group pushed for the employment of black teachers, the admission of black students to previously all-white schools, passage of new state civil rights laws, an end to labor union discrimination, and termination of police harassment of black workers. Police arrested migrants as vagrants, the branch protested, for the purpose of forcing them “back to the flames of the torturing South.” Rev. J. C. Austin became the most prominent clergyman supporting the Garvey cause. He not only allowed members to use his church for meetings, but invited UNIA leaders to speak from his pulpit at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. In 1923, Austin also delivered the opening address at the UNIA’s International Convention, where he “received a loud and enthusiastic greeting” when he addressed the gathering as “my beloved yoke fellows in tribulation and co-partners in this struggle for freedom and justice.”
Cumberland “Cum” Posey Jr. and W. A. “Gus” Greenlee, manager and part owner of the Homestead Grays, spearheaded the growth of professional black baseball in Pittsburgh. Gus Greenlee also operated a lucrative numbers game during the 1920s and purchased another black team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, in 1930. Greenlee recruited star players like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige and built his own stadium on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District. At a time when the Pittsburgh Pirates excluded black players, Greenlee not only helped to transform baseball into a major leisure-time and cultural activity for the African American community, but a significant employer of black workers as well. In an interview with historian Ancella Livers, Harold C. Tinker Sr., who played professional and sandlot baseball, underscored the double-duty role that black baseball played in Pittsburgh’s black community: “We had a pride underneath. . . . We were helping people. That’s what my pride came from. We used to make people rejoice who were down. During the era of the Crawfords that was the bad time, ’27, ’28, and I used to see people at baseball games forget all about their troubles. They were turning handsprings and jumpin’, hollerin.’ And just the fact that people were making people happy for a few hours, it did something to me. And I was just as proud as if I was making a thousand dollars a week.”
Cumberland “Cum” Posey Jr. and W. A. “Gus” Greenlee, manager and part owner of the Homestead Grays, spearheaded the growth of professional black baseball in Pittsburgh. Gus Greenlee also operated a lucrative numbers game during the 1920s and purchased another black team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, in 1930. Greenlee recruited star players like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige and built his own stadium on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District. At a time when the Pittsburgh Pirates excluded black players, Greenlee not only helped to transform baseball into a major leisure-time and cultural activity for the African American community, but a significant employer of black workers as well. In an interview with historian Ancella Livers, Harold C. Tinker Sr., who played professional and sandlot baseball, underscored the double-duty role that black baseball played in Pittsburgh’s black community: “We had a pride underneath. . . . We were helping people. That’s what my pride came from. We used to make people rejoice who were down. During the era of the Crawfords that was the bad time, ’27, ’28, and I used to see people at baseball games forget all about their troubles. They were turning handsprings and jumpin’, hollerin.’ And just the fact that people were making people happy for a few hours, it did something to me. And I was just as proud as if I was making a thousand dollars a week.”
- Race and Renaissance, Trotter
The Hill District
- During the “Great Migration,” many black people came from the south to Pittsburgh, looking for work, but found competition with white immigrants also seeking work. This influx of people created a massive housing crisis.
- The Hill District became a massive hub for black culture, including jazz, bars, local businesses. It was at the forefront of growing black communities in the country
- In the 50s, in an effort to revitalize the city, the Civic Arena began its construction in the Hill District. Construction displaced over 8,000 residents and over 400 businesses.
- Recently, deals with the Penguins have slated the Lower Hill District for redevelopment in an effort to “revitalize” the area, but it’s uncertain how the development will play out and its effects.
- The Hill District became a massive hub for black culture, including jazz, bars, local businesses. It was at the forefront of growing black communities in the country
- In the 50s, in an effort to revitalize the city, the Civic Arena began its construction in the Hill District. Construction displaced over 8,000 residents and over 400 businesses.
- Recently, deals with the Penguins have slated the Lower Hill District for redevelopment in an effort to “revitalize” the area, but it’s uncertain how the development will play out and its effects.