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Black History Month 2018

“If race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

Carter Goodwin Woodson 1875-1950

American historian and educator Carter Woodson was working on his Ph.D at Harvard when he made that observation.  Little did he know his keen insight would spark the creation of a four-week celebration now known as Black History Month.  WPXI continues to honor the long-standing tradition with a look back at some memorable moments in Pittsburgh’s black history starting with a bi-weekly newspaper called the Pittsburgh Courier.%

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The Courier was the most widely read black newspaper in the nation and many of its sports pages focused on two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues.   One of them, the Homestead Grays, included a catcher named Josh Gibson who was often called the black Babe Ruth. In fact some fans, at the time who saw both Ruth and Gibson play, called Ruth "the white Josh Gibson".  Gibson never played in the major leagues because of an unwritten "gentleman's agreement" that prevented non-white players from participating.

In the boxing ring, two Courier reporters Bill Nunn and Chester Washington helped make Joe Louis a hero to black America and a sympathetic heavyweight champion to white boxing fans. %

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Smoketown author Mark Whitaker: “Black Pittsburgh once had an impact that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago.”  On the jazz scene, Pittsburgh produced three of the most sought- after jazz pianists of the era.  Earl “Fatha Hines, Mary Lou Williams and the electrifying Erroll Garner.  Billy Eckstine became the most popular black singer of the 1940’s while Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and the vivacious Lena Horne helped give rise to bebop.

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Then, on April 27th, 1945, Daisey Wilson gave birth to a boy who grew up to become America’s greatest black playwright.  August Wilson's anecdotal history reports that his maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life.

Today, black Pittsburgh is best known as the setting of August Wilson’s sweeping Century Cycle: Fences, The Piano Lesson and seven more of the ten plays he wrote depicting black life in each decade of the twentieth century.

Smoketown

author Mark Whitaker, “Wilson conjured black Pittsburgh as a world full of tormented, %

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% struggling strivers held back by white racism and their own personal demons.  It was a     portrait that reflected the playwright’s affection for the black working class, as well as the harsh reality of what became of the Hill District.”    %

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But there was still some positivity flowing from the Hill District even in 1968, at a time of racial tension and social upheaval. If you look closely at Pittsburgh EMS ambulances, you might see an emblem commemorating “Freedom House,” an ambulance service that responded to medical emergencies in an impoverished section of the city from 1968 to 1975. %

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Freedom House was a cutting-edge experiment in pre-hospital care that helped break down racial barriers and shape the development of a fledgling EMS system in America.  Even 50 years later the story of the young black men and women trained to become emergency responders for a community in desperate need of services, trained by a handful of pioneering doctors who were among the first to believe in high-quality pre-hospital care, still resonates. %

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“It was so far ahead of its time,” says John Moon, a Freedom House medic who eventually became assistant EMS chief in Pittsburgh until his retirement in 2009.

“It was inconceivable at that time for someone to come to your door and start an IV on you, or intubate you and give you cardiac drugs and start CPR.  Outside the hospital, this had never been done.”

One black trainee recalled the growing popularity of the Freedom House’s efficiency, “They used to call us The Freedom Boys.  When a call came in, the police officers would take the call and then transfer the call to us if it was of a medical nature…these people began to ask for us personally.  They said, ‘Don’t send the police, you send us them Freedom boys.’” %

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More than seven decades after their service to their country, members of the Tuskegee Airmen were also recognized for their efficiency in an exhibit at Pittsburgh International Airport.  The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black pilots, navigators and support staff in America's military. They fought in World War II in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and their largest contingent -- nearly 100 -- came from Western Pennsylvania. %

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At the time of the Tuskegee Airmen's service, the U.S. military was racially segregated and African-Americans were subjected to Jim Crow laws imposing racial segregation at public facilities in southern states.  Dr. Robert Higgenbotham joined the airmen the week after graduating from Sewickley High School.  As he visited the new exhibit, he said he believes their legacy is a message of equality.  “That we did our duty when the time came. We stepped up to the plate, just like anyone else, and we hit a home run like Babe Ruth” said Higgenbotham. %

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Black History Month has evolved exponentially since it began as Negro History Week in 1926.  Every Pittsburgh resident may not agree that Black History Month is a good thing, but few would argue with the fact that black history is OUR history. %

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