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Time Begin/In Cue

Content

Connections

:38

Promo for Pittsburgh History Series

WA01

1:35

From the 1930s to the 1950s the Hill District thrived and was one of the most prosperous and influential black neighborhoods in America. It was thriving, bustling, and safe--a center for music, art and literature.

Much of what was the Hill is gone now. The Civic Arena replaced the Lower Hill and the Upper Hill is struggling to renew itself.

Introduction

Western PA History

WA02

3:15

During the Smoky City days Pittsburgh's Hill District was a jumping off point for Irish and Jewish immigrants. African-Americans migrated from the South later and created a powerful and diverse Black community. The various groups interacted with each and supported a mix of businesses: jewelers, dry cleaners, doctors, and lawyers offices, printing shops summer camps and more.

Western PA History: Immigrants

Creating Community

WA03

4:45

B&W photo of drugstore clerks

The place was jumping all night. Goode's Pharmacy on the corner of Fullerton and Wylie originally planned to close at eleven o'clock but people kept coming so Bill Goode decided to stay open all night.

Creating Community: Business

Having Fun

WA04

6:20

The Hill nurtured some real musical talent including Billy Eckstein, Lena Horne, Errol Garner, Ahmad Jamal and Mary Louise.

The Arts

Creating Community

WA05

8:00

Playwright August Wilson remembers that the Hill never seemed to go to bed: old men played checkers outside all hours of the night; people sat out on their stoops and slept on the fire escapes in hot weather.

The Arts

WA06

8:38

The neighborhood had some memorable characters with colorful nicknames like "Fluwanna," "Death," and "Church"

Creating Community: "characters"

WA07

9:50

B&W still of little boy in bigh hat

The Great Migration that started in World War I reached its peak during the Depression. Blacks came North to escape poverty and repression in the South but conditions here weren't much better here. Segregated from the world of whites, black residents of the Hill developed strong institutions of their own.

Western PA History: Great migration of WWI

WA08

11:50

Courier newspaper banner

The Pittsburgh Courier began as a small neighborhood weekly newspaper and quickly became an important, nationally known paper. Self-taught photographer Teeny Harris took more than 80,000 pictures of black life in Pittsburgh.

Creating Community: Black institutions, newpapers

The Arts: photography

WA09

15:35

Newspaper "clubwomen"

Other institutions included clubs like the Aurora Reading Club, the Pioneers or the Ducks. The men had the Black Professional Association and the "Frogs" who sponsored "Frog Week," a summer week of parties, dances, games, the Frog Formal and people came from all over the country.

The Loendi Club had its own 3-story building on Wylie and Fullerton where black celebrities, like Duke Ellington, often went.

Creating Community: clubs

The Arts

WA10

18:30

Luana Graves owned LaSalle's, a salon and beauty college, whose goal was to teach "colored" girls that they could do something besides housework for white people.

Creating Community: women-owned business

WA11

20:00

The Black community held a beauty pageant sponsored by the Black Professional Association. It ran a full week and ended in a swimsuit competition and talent show. Participants were sponsored by a business or club.

The Hill vacated for the really big event of the year the summer picnic with games, races, prize drawings, big band concerts, talent shows and something for everybody.

Having Fun: picnics

Creating Community: picnics

WA12

23:50

The church was the real center of social life in the Hill. There was Ebenezer Baptist Church, John Wesley M. E. Zion, and Mother Bethel, the oldest congregation of color west of Alleghenies, and the site of many civil rights demonstrations, Warren United Methodist, Central, Monumental Baptist, St. Benedict the Moor, the first black catholic church in Pittsburgh. The priest says, "You came to the Church for everything–prayers on Sunday, dancing on Saturday, education, it was where you met your future spouse; picked the children that your kids played with, that's where you got guidance and advice; material help.

Creating Community: churches

The Church in Social Life

WA13

26:40

Black businesses flourished on Wylie Avenue, partly because Blacks were often not welcome outside of the Hill.

Johnson Studios thrived in the Hill. They filmed the Black Professional Association's annual parade which ended up on Wylie Avenue. In the 30s and 40s drivers for the Owl Cab Company were not allowed to pick up fares outside the Hill.

Nesbit's was a class restaurant that specialized in pies, their famous strawberry, pumpkin, coconut custard, and its famous sweet potato pie. George Nesbit, the owner, preached that the Blacks needed an economic base.

Furrier, William Prior, his son, William, Jr. and now his grandson, the III. He remembers white people wouldn't buy fur coats from black businesses but bought Downtown where stores bought from Bill and sewed in their own labels.

Creating Community: Businesses

WA14

33:35

Parade of policemen

The Hill police, who were almost all over six feet tall, used their own way to enforce the law. It seemed to work since crime and violence were never a problem.

Creating Community: Police

Segregation and discrimination

WA15

37:00

Aerial view of district. Picture of group of black numbers writers.

Numbers were the unofficial lottery and bank system. Men who wrote the numbers became the Hills financial tycoons and folk heroes.

The two most famous number writers Woogie the barber, and Gus Greenlee, who owned the Crawford Grill are remembered as generous and compassionate. "We depended on two people–the minister and the number writers."

Creating Community: Numbers as financial safety net.

WA16

39:15

Baseball game (pitcher winding up)

Gus Greenlee built his own baseball field for his professional team the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Along with the Homestead Greys they carved a name for themselves in baseball lore. People dressed up for the games, which were major recreation on the Hill.

Having Fun: Sports — Baseball's Negro Leagues

WA17

41:37

Prizefighters in ring

The Hill also turned out for the sport of boxing. The 1951 World Heavyweight Championship fight with Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles at Forbes Field was the largest fight crowd in Pittsburgh history.

Having Fun: Sports-Boxing

WA18

42:22

Two street scenes then men entering a barbershop.

Everyone hung out at Wylie Avenue barbershops. Archie's Place on 5^th Avenue now is a descendant of those shops. Archie started out at Woogie's Crystal Barber Shop on the Hill. "all the celebrities from all over the world knew Woogie and you got a chance to see them all. "

Creating Community: gathering places

WA19

44:24

Shot of young couple at a table in a club

Friday and Saturday night was a real occasion on Wylie Avenue when blacks and whites alike would dress up and and tour clubs all over the Hill.

One popular dance step was "Trucking." Like Harlem, the Hill drew the biggest names in music-- Sarah Vaughn, Billy Eckstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Art Coltrain, Dexter Gordon, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Artie Shaw all came. Between New York and Chicago the Hill was the place to be!

Having Fun: Music, dancing and clubs

WA20

50:07

Shot of Mary Dee in studio.

Though radio station WHOD billed itself as the "Station of Nations," it aired no Black shows. In 1948 Mary Dee, approached the station managers and was told if she found sponsors they would give her air time. She did and eventually had 4-5 hour shows, including one with her brotherand another with her daughter called, "Teenage Express."

Having Fun: Radio

Creating Community: media

WA21

51:47

Corner of Fullerton and Wylie then Civic Arena parking lot

Wylie Avenue Days came to an end when the Civic Arena was built in the 1950s. Florence Bridges remembers the vitality that is now gone.

Western PA History: urban redevelopment

Creating Community: Demise of a neighborhood

WA22

53:00

Woman in brown print dress in parking lot talking then shots of demolition crews

Urban renewal: Hill District

In the 1950s the city opened a urban development office and began tearing down houses and businesses--"most devastating thing that ever happened to the black community was to tear out the Lower Hill…. People went all directions settling wherever they could find a place."

Wrecking crew knocked down the economic base of the Hill and living conditions deteriorated as people left the Hill.

After Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, riots ravaged and devastated what was left of the Hill a blow from which it never recovered.

Bridges and Buildings: Urban redevelopment

The End