Courier a stalwart black newspaper for more than a century

For more than 100 years, one Pittsburgh newspaper has served as one of the loudest and… For more than 100 years, one Pittsburgh newspaper has served as one of the loudest and clearest voices of the black community in the area and across the country.

The Pittsburgh Courier has been one of America’s most important and prominent black newspapers. Founded in 1907 by Edwin Harleston, who was a writer and security guard at the H. J. Heinz factory, the Pittsburgh Courier soon became a voice for black communities across the nation.

In 1910, attorney Robert Lee Vann took charge of the paper, and its circulation soared, surpassing other black newspapers from New York and Chicago.

By the 1930s, it was one of America’s most widely read black newspapers, publishing national editions and employing foreign correspondents.

The paper made a name for itself by protesting the hardships and segregation that black people were forced to deal with. Issues such as inequality in housing and education were rallying cries for the community, and the Pittsburgh Courier encouraged black people to take an active role in politics.

It also encouraged participation in organizations such as the National Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

According to Pitt history professor Laurence Glasco, the Pittsburgh Courier played an important role in the 1932 election of President Franklin Roosevelt by encouraging black people to vote for the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party.

“The paper always had a cause, they always had a campaign,” he said. “The Pittsburgh Courier ran other campaigns about juvenile delinquency and civil rights.”

Glasco said that the campaigns were used to maintain reader interest by constantly informing them about the state of affairs in the black community.

Throughout the years, the Pittsburgh Courier has published a number of columns by important and influential members of the black community, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, W.E.B. DuBois and Zora Neale Hurston.

Ira Lewis became editor of the paper in 1940 following Vann’s death.

It was Lewis who increased circulation of the paper to record levels even during the difficult and turbulent years of World War II.

The success of the paper was due in part to its “Double V,” or double victory campaign.

Using the war as its backdrop, the Pittsburgh Courier demanded that black soldiers who were fighting in the war be given equal rights.

According to Glasco, the “Double V” campaign “linked African American causes into a greater struggle against Nazism.”

The “Double V” campaign called for “democracy at home, democracy abroad,” as a way to bring attention to the inequalities that faced black Americans despite their contributions to preserving freedom.

“The campaign gave white Americans a way to be patriotic and also be in favor of civil rights,” Glasco said.

According to Glasco, mayors across the country, celebrities in Hollywood and other supporters of equal rights wore buttons in support of the “Double V” campaign.

“It helped liberate not only black Americans but white Americans, as well,” he said.

In 1948, editor Ira Lewis died and the paper was eventually bought by John Sengstacke, the publisher of the Chicago Defender, another prominent black newspaper.

“By the late 1950s and 1960s, the white press became more sympathetic to race issues,” Glasco said. “The black press had been going downhill, and the consolidation of media had a negative effect on it.”

Despite decreased readership, the newspaper, now called the New Pittsburgh Courier, has maintained an important role in the black community, although its focus has become more localized.

Glasco said he has seen an “enormous shift in racial attitudes” over the past few years.

He said that “there is something fundamentally sound in terms of race relations in America,” given the success that Barack Obama has had in his presidential campaign.

“A few years ago, this would have been unheard of, that a black candidate could have a serious chance of becoming president.”

Despite what Glasco sees as a “great softening of racial attitudes” in America, there remains what he called a “great isolation and hopelessness” for many blacks, as well as other low-income citizens.

“Economic disadvantages still plague the black community,” Glasco said. “It seems like this problem should be solvable. This can be done.”

The New Pittsburgh Courier is headquartered on East Carson Street in the South Side and is published each Wednesday.