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WHEREAS, the New Pittsburgh Courier, formerly known as The Pittsburgh Courier, is a weekly African American publication based in the South Side that celebrated its official 100th anniversary on March 10, 2010; and,
WHEREAS, Edward Harleston, at the time a security guard in the HJ Heinz Plant, inaugurated The Pittsburgh Courier in 1907 as a place to publish his writing before Robert L. Vann took over stewardship of the publication to sign its corporate charter in 1910, transforming The Pittsburgh Courier into the vanguard for the economic and political empowerment of African Americans, effectively offering an alternative voice to the misrepresentations of African Americans in mainstream media; and,
WHEREAS, The Pittsburgh Courier was one of the first black newspapers to publish both national and local editions, at its zenith reaching a circulation of 14 editions in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York, hosting columns written by luminary figures that included the likes of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Dubois, James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neal Hurston; and,
WHEREAS, the historic significance of the Pittsburgh Courier cannot be overstated, with Frank Bolden, a pioneer journalist, interviewing Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and Gandhi in a 12 month period, as well as becoming one of the first black correspondents credentialed by the War Department to cover troops in World War II; and,
WHEREAS, during World War II, The Pittsburgh Courier organized the "Double V" campaign for victory abroad and victory at home, demanding that African Americans who were risking their lives abroad receive full citizenship rights at home, an effort that expanded nationally upon the endorsement of other black newspapers across the nation; and,
WHEREAS, The Pittsburgh Courier played a contributing role in the desegregation of professional sports, spearheaded by sportswriter Wendell Smith who used his column to denounce the then standard separatist...
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