One of the things I remember about The Courier is it came to our house every Thursday religiously.

That was something that was a very influential piece of African Americans in Pittsburgh.

It was really the premier paper national paper of black America, not just in Pittsburgh, but but around the country.

It was exclusive to a particular community with a particular interest.

I came to Courier primaril because growing up in Tennessee, I wanted to know why there was so much hatred between white America and black America.

It raised issues that may not have been talked about everywhere else.

Most of the white papers, like the Post-Gazette or the press, weren't covering in detail the experiences that African-Americans were facing on a daily basis.

This is my community.

This is for me.

So I know that each pag that I look at, I'm going to see someone that looks like me.

If i was not for the Pullman porters, Courier would not have had any circulation in the South.

Because in the Sout you could not have newspapers, black newspapers, saying what they were saying and doing what they were doing.

As for us, the civil rights struggle was concerned.

Brotherhood of sleeping car porters, who helped circulat the newspaper across the country because they took the paper with them on the trains and delivered the paper through especially throughout the South, where some postal employees would deliver the paper.

Some of the porters would take the packets of the Pittsburgh Courier and either hide them away under mattresses or in the baggage, or something and then when they would get to a Birmingham or a place like that, they were distributed to a local minister who was going to come meet the train and then take that bunch of papers to his congregation.

And my grandfather had bee a Pullman porter for 42 years.

He retired in the early 1950s, just before I was born.

He never told me specifically that he helped deliver the Courier, but I know just from reading history now that the porters did play a significant role in that.

Around 1907, the founder of the Pittsburgh Courier was a man named Edward Nathaniel Harleston, a native of Charleston, South Carolina.

He had actually written a book of poetry called A Toilers Life, published in 1907, and shortly after that he moved to Pittsburgh and worked at the Heinz Company on the North Side and began to distribute a paper called The Courier, and he hired a young new lawyer named Robert Vann, who became the editor of the paper and the sort of the publisher and Mr.

Everyman for the paper.

And in 1910 Robert Vann bought the paper, and Vann was really quite a remarkable figure.

He was from North Carolina, became to stud at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1909 he graduated from Pitt Law School.

He was the first black graduate of Pitt Law School.

Vann also hired top rate writers.

They had George Schuyler, who was a fine writer and novelist columnist, and he was a satirist.

He had John Clark, who wrote a weekly column called Wylie Avenue.

He hired outstanding sports writers.

William Nunn became one of the leading blac sports writers in the country, and was a real campaigner for many causes, including the integration of baseball.

He had photographers, one of the best black photographers in the country.

Teenie Harris worked on the paper and Harris was just one of 6 or 7 photographers.

The Pittsburgh Courier was not the only African-American pape to be published in Pittsburgh, especially in the 1930s, i the years leading up to the war.

There were a couple of other papers, little smaller operations than a currier, but they did exist.

The currier was looked upon as sort of the middle class newspaper leading up to the war years.

Robert Vann Did wa he sent correspondents to Europe who were covering the Nazi regime.

This is before Hitler and went into Poland and in Austria an Czechoslovakia in the late 30s.

He sent J.A.

Rogers in 1936 to Ethiopia to cover the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

Rogers reported directly from the front lines.

Frank Bolden was one of the great correspondents for the Courier.

He was one of onl two accredited black journalists accredited by the US military to cover with the soldiers were doing overseas.

And Bolden covered the 92nd Infantry, the black infantry in Italy and he covered the Burma Road.

He got an offer from Mahatma Gandhi to stay at his house for two weeks, and interviewed Gandhi.

When Nehru heard about that.

Nehru invited him to his house.

So he interviewed Nehru.

He interviewed President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Chiang Kai shek, Joseph Stalin.

The vast problems of the war against Japan were discussed.

Bolden went on to become really this internationally known as though in the Newseum in Washington, the Newseum Hall of Fame, with his military uniform an typewriter and things like that.

During World War Two, it was reported at that time that The Courier was read by over a million people worldwide.

The Courier set the tone for when Black Americans shifted from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in the 1930s.

Robert Band said, because there's a new era, there's unemployment.

This is in the 30s during the Great Depression, and we need the sorts of programs that Roosevelt is advocating, one that will help the working man, the working class, white and black.

And so the Courier led the campaign to turn blacks from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party.

Vann always had a campaign going.

He had a campaign against lynching, had a campaign to integrate baseball.

And the most famous was known as the double V campaign for his called victory at home, victory abroad.

And so America was fighting against Nazi racism in Europe.

And The Courier made it a point to build its figh against American racism at home.

At the same time, you'll have democracy in both places.

The amazing thing is that the campaign caugh on magnificently among whites, as well as among blacks for the first time in America.

It made it a patriotic thing to be for integration and for racial equality.

Some of the issues after World War tw that the Courier was covering, they continued the double V campaign in a sense, but they called it a double E campaign.

Which was focused more on economic development in the black community.

They felt that that was the next stage of freedom in a sense, in America.

For African-Americans.

And so the Courier covered all those things, especially the civil rights movement in the 50s.

You know, before Doctor King became a national, voic and the Montgomery bus boycott basically drafted him to take the leadership of that issue.

The courier sent their reporters their southern correspondents, to cover the happenings.

One of the articles that our family kept forever was an article from February of 1953, which was about two months before I was born.

And it was an article tha included reference to my father.

My father was pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in McKeesport in the mid 1950s.

And the headline said ministers reject Jim Crow Picnic proposal.

Kennywood would allow blac churches to have their picnics at Kennywood, but the black churches weren't allowed to use the pool.

I realized that this article was in our home for a reason that they kept that article.

I didn't see an article like that from the Post-Gazette or the Pittsburgh Press, or the Pittsburgh Sun.

Telegraph.

The Courier was campaigning for black rights, civil rights, but it always did so i the sense of this is important to make America the place it should be and would be.

The courier more than anyone.

Open the door for Jacki Robinson, which opened the doors for Roberto Clemente, which opened the door for Willie Stargell and all of the other players.

Wendell Smith, who was sports editor back in the days of Jackie Robinson, who spent several months actually living with Jackie Robinson to show readers what it was like, his journey through baseball, his journey breaking the color barrier.

William Nunn became one of the leading sportswriters in the country and was a real campaigner for many causes, including the integration of baseball.

Nunn was the key factor in opening up baseball and bringing Jackie into the major leagues.

Then his son, William Nunn Junior.

He went on and continued this and became a sports editor with The Courier, but also as a recruiter with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And then he brought in some of the best Steeler players, especially under the era of Chuck Norris.

Nunn knew the Black colleges.

He knew the coaches.

He knew the athletic director.

He knew the deans, the head of the school, the presidents.

He knew who the best players comin out of these black schools were and was able to recruit them for the Steelers.

Bill Nun should be in the Hall of Fame, not because he buil the Steelers into a powerhouse.

Also dealt with that rule that they had in the NFL at the time of 3 to 5 blacks, and that's it.

If you take a look at the makeup of the NFL during the 50s and 60s and coming into the 70s, you find that you only had 2, 5 or 6 blacks.

Now, you may have all starting defenses as black, started with the Courier in 1973 I came to the Courier because I wanted to work for the black newspaper.

I got to know the Pirate players, especially Al Oliver.

Al will open up the doors for me as far as getting into the Pirates locker room, because when I first got there, for some reason, they had me sitting down in the hall and the other reporters as in and out and out, Al Oliver came by and said, why are you standing out here in the hall?

I said, that was the PR man told me.

And he said, I'll talk to the PR.

The Courier offices were also right across the street from the old Center Avenue Y, and legend has it that when Roberto Clemente first came to town, he stayed right there.

One of the things Bill Nunn raised a lot about Clemente was that Clemente always felt as thoug he was not given the recognition due by the other Pittsburgh newspapers.

The problem was he was black.

That was number one.

He was dark skin, and he spoke English but not as clear as most of us.

Try to interview as many blacks as I could.

And the general feeling was that Clemente and most black players, if for some reason the local media did not want to give Clemente his due.

Courier was created to giv a voice to the black community, and with the comes to th players, give the black players their voice.

And that's what role I saw.

The role of the Courier has been I was just going through some of my archives and I found these wonderful Pittsburgh Courier.

This one from 1979 it was a special fashion edition and I'm on the cover, I model, I commentate fashion shows.

So I've been in the Courier a lot and one year I was thinking about what type of a part time job did I want?

And I got a I got a tip that the person who was there as the lifestyle editor was soon going to retire, and I saw that I think that sounds like a very good job for me.

And here we are 17 years later.

The Women's Department of the Courier always had outstanding reporters and columnists.

Hazel Garland being one of the premier examples of that.

And her column were about women, but they were not just about women.

They were how women are helping to shape the black community.

Their roles in the in the church, their roles in business, their roles in the community.

Haze Garland, who eventually became the first female editor of a major weekly like The Courier, was from the McKeesport area.

And so she knew my dad when he was pastor there.

And, when I got married, I remember in her column Things to Talk About was this little article that, the son of Reverend Hayes got married, and he married a girl from McKeesport.

So, our family has, from Reverend Hayes, raising issues about Kennywoods practices to little Timmy getting married.

All of it has been a part of our life in the quarter.

She was my immediate boss and she basically was my mentor.

I love he because she was down to earth.

She knew the news.

She knew her sports.

She knew her entertainment.

She knew her social society.

She had the contacts to be able to reach anybody with anybody i black, you know, entertainment.

In the so-called chitlin circui was always well covered in terms of, who was doing what in the local community.

The Chitlin Circuit was black jazz clubs and nightclubs that were available to black performers who couldn't go somewhere else.

The arts and entertainment section.

That's where you kind of found out who was coming to town.

My mother would be intereste in Count Basie coming to town, or Duke Ellington o some of the contemporary people.

They may have been covered in the mainstream press, but nothing lik they were covered in the Courier There would be profile of people like Billy Eckstine.

Erroll Garner had roots here.

We saw nationally those stars that were on the horizon.

So the entertainment world was very important.

But more importantly, we saw peopl who were progressing as doctors, lawyers, politicians moving on that level as well.

When I was a little girl, I met Teenie Harris because our family would go and have photographs taken and we would go to Teenie Harris's studio.

But to know that we actually work for the same newspaper is just mind boggling.

I didn't take no pictures and no photography in school.

I learned all this by just myself.

And really when you look at, for example, the Teenie Harris photos, you get a sense of despite all the obstacles and the handicaps and the the misfortunes and the discrimination that somehow these people, they did not have the sort of anger and bitterness and sense of futility that one might have gathered.

They show African-Americans.

When we dressed up we wore suits and ties and hats and and when we were going to the dinner parties and in the world that a lot of people didn't know existed.

One of the things that the Courier in the black press did that was lacking in the white press is they gave a sense of daily life in the black community.

There would be wonderful stories about peopl who had graduated from college, and maybe there would be, pictures of people who had gotten engaged or wedding pictures, but there would always be different pictures about the black community.

And now I could be in Martha's Vineyard one day, and, you know, I could be in Homewood the next, you know, covering a wonderful fashion show.

So I was invited to a memorial for Bobby Nunn Bobby Nunn.

Was Bill Nunn, the third son of Bill Nunn junior.

He was in Spik Lee's movie Do the Right Thing.

It was just such a wonderful event.

Samuel L Jackson was here.

Spike Lee was here.

I was just so happy and honored to be here as a as a par of the new Pittsburgh Courier.

The footstep of the march in Washington was firm.

It aroused, even in dissenters, a larger awareness of the right of the Negroes as Americans to share equally not a once the civil rights movement kicked in.

The white press covered that as well.

So the courier, no longer the black press no longer had sort of a monopoly of news.

The blacks were interested in reading about.

And this actually harmed the circulation of the Courier in the black press.

The Courier circulation was around 350 400,000 during World War two.

By 1960, a period of the 50s, you see, it was down to about 100,000.

The Courier may have fallen victim to its own success.

It raised the issue so tha there was a national attention.

But then onc there was a national attention, you had the choice.

Do you want to have just the focus on civil rights in this paper or.

Oh, I can get tha somewhere else, which was sad.

But there's a new Pittsburgh Courier in there carrying on that tradition.

By 65, their big competitor, the Chicago Defender.

bought the Courier, the name changed to become the new Pittsburgh Courier.

When I first arrived, the paper was owned by John A Saint Stack.

And he was an incredible man.

He was highly regarded and respected throughout this country.

When he passed, then the real Times organization came in and purchased the rights to the publication.

And, they are headquartered in Detroit, and that's where we are today.

I've been affiliated with the Courier since 1967.

We had a fairly healthy publication in the sense that we had a local edition.

And back then I think there were 14, regional publications.

I'll get the mayor's take on that.

Okay.

The paper really reverted back more to a local paper, which is how it began as a local paper Van made it national.

By the 60s, it's going back to being a local paper.

And beyond the physical product, we were online.

We have kept up with the technology until to a great extent, we are a multimedia company.

Pittsburgh Courier covers Pittsburgh public schools, sports that you won't see in the Post-Gazette or somewhere you will occasionally, but the Courier covers it every week.

It covers issues that are important to the black community education, economic.

When I got here one of the first questions that our editor and publisher asked me was, how can we make sure tha the core is relevant right now?

We know that the core has a a long and storied past over 100 years.

But like many publications across the country, circulation is dwindling.

So he asked me, what can we do to be relevant about now?

We're doing more stories on millennials.

So we're we're lookin to attract a different audience.

We've revamped our website, newpittsburghcourier.com.

We are very active on social media.

Our Facebook page has thousands and thousands of local Pittsburghers and check it out every week.

We are into videos now, and that's where a lot of this world is headed.

And we're headed there too.

We are changing because we have to change.

If you want people to to see the paper, buy the paper, subscribe to the paper.

Then you have to to make changes.

Many Pittsburghers have begun to like our page.

They've begun to interact with us.

We'll go to an event and post 40 pictures that will capture everybody at the event.

So if you were at that event.

Yeah, sure.

The new photo may be in the Courier, but on our Facebook page, we have captured pictures of seemingly all 150 or 175 people who live there.

There ar a lot of people that have been exposed to the Courier through our event process.

We do 50 men and women of excellence.

We do a fab 40 which celebrates 40 young people under the age of 40.

And we've been doing it for several years.

So that says a lot about ho we interact with the community, how we are engaged in the community, how we are regarded in the community.

It is just as relevant, just as important today as it was back then.

Because you know what?

This world never stops.

You've got young African Americans who are looking to find their voice.

And you know what?

The Pittsburgh Courier is here to make sure that their voice is heard, that a lot has changed.

The internet has changed every, every printed publication, but it still has its role in terms of, making sure that community voices are.

It's a weekly that still contains a story that you won't find anywhere else.

We've covered thousands and thousands of people, and I think my biggest accomplishmen and my greatest satisfaction is that they will tell their story.

The issues that were important to the community when I first came was still important today.

We're lookin at the resegregation of schools.

We're looking at a lot of thing that we thought were surpassed at one point in our history but have become overly magnified in another sense today.

We're still dealing with discrimination in one form or another.

We're still dealing with housing inequality, segregation.

The Courier really has the freedom to comment on stories because we're talking about our own.

I believe it's one of those papers that can stand the test of time.