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WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
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1910
The Pittsburgh Courier
CELEBRATING
100 YEARS!
In January of 1910,
the Pittsburgh Courier
published its first issue.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
23
rom 1914 to 1919, World War I
disrupted European immigration to
Pittsburgh, while domestically the
African American migration from
the South was in full bloom as thousands
moved into cities from rural southern and
southwestern areas. Two of these transplants,
Edward Nathaniel Harleston and Robert L.
Vann, developed a newspaper that made a
significant impact on journalism and African
American life worldwide.
In 1910 Harleston wanted to expand
his small sheet newspaper into a major
publication. A native of Charleston, South
Carolina, Harleston
had moved to
Pittsburgh from
Atlantic City in
1907. Harleston
started working as
a messenger at the
H.J. Heinz Company
Edward Nathaniel
on Pittsburgh’s
Harleston as portrayed
in the frontispiece of his
North Side. He had
book, The Toilers Life.
industrial training University of Virginia, Special Collections.
as a carpenter and
a business background as a partner in
the Harleston and Wilson Undertaker &
Embalmer Company in Charleston. By late
1909, Harleston had neither the capital nor
the experience to expand his small newspaper
alone. For assistance he turned to co-workers,
friends, and even his landlady and her family.
He also sought the advice of Hepburn Carter
and Edward Penman, who suggested that
1920s
24
In 1929, the Pittsburgh
Courier Publishing
Company plant was built
at 2628 Centre Avenue
in the Hill District.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
he talk to members of the Loendi Club, a
prestigious elite A frican American men’s
organization. Harleston engaged the support
of Cumberland Posey, Sr., William Nelson
Page, William Hance, and Samuel Rosemound
who put together an investment team to
publish the Pittsburgh Courier. According
to Courier reporter Frank Bolden, Parthenia
Tanner (a cousin of Henry Ossawa Tanner
whose mother was Harleston’s landlord)
paid for the postage for the first issue of
the Pittsburgh Courier in January 1910.
The initial issue listed Harleston as editor,
Reverend Scott Wood as city editor, Carter as
advertising manager, and Marion Tanner as
subscription manager.
Soon the committee engaged another
Loendi Club member, attorney Robert L.
Vann, to draw up the news paper’s charter.
Vann was a 1906 graduate of Western
Pennsylvania University (now the University
of Pittsburgh) and in 1909, became the first
African American to graduate from the
university’s school of law. Harleston and
the committee offered Vann five shares of
the organization’s stock as payment. Vann
purchased even more shares of company
1930s
Robert L. Vann and the
Courier were very influential
for the shift of the African
American political party
allegiance from Republican
to the Democratic Party.
Robert LL. Vann,
Vann editor of
The Pittsburgh Courier, c. 1930.
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Department.
stock and filed the charter for the Pittsburgh
Courier Publishing Company on March 10,
1910. The company was incorporated on
August 10, 1910.
Vann, a native of rural North Carolina,
nonetheless became one of the most
influential African Americans of the first half
of the 20th century. He attended Virginia
Union University before enrolling at Western
University of Pennsylvania in 1903, where
he became editor-in-chief of the school
newspaper, The Courant. He immediately set
up his law office upon passing the state bar
in 1909.
In the mid-’30s, the Courier
covered the career of boxer
Joe Louis. The headlines
helped promote the hero
persona of Louis.
The Pittsburgh Courier’s
far-reaching influence
can be seen in the
capital city edition.
Library of Congress
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
25
“Group in Office” by Charles “Teenie” Harris,
1908-1998, Kodak safety film.
© 2009 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
26
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
By the fall of 1910, Vann had assumed
co-editorship with Harleston while Posey
served as president of the company. Within a
year, Harleston left the paper and city. Many
assumed he left out of frustration that his
paper, the Pittsburgh Courier, was no longer
under his complete control. Vann then became
editor, treasurer, and later publisher. For years,
Vann did not pull a salary from the newspaper
but was paid with stocks and bonds. He went
about the business of making the paper a firstclass weekly and the most important African
American paper in Pittsburgh. The Courier’s
original office was at 1212 Wylie Avenue in
Jackson’s Undertaking Company, but by 1914,
the paper had moved to Vann’s law offices at
518 Fourth Avenue downtown.
In 1914 Vann hired Ira Lewis, another
Pittsburgh migrant from North Carolina,
as business manager, who built a solvent
advertising sales and circulation campaign.
Vann saw the importance of having talented,
industrious, and skilled staff and technicians.
Vann and the Courier executives after him
continued to hire talented people, including:
• William “Bill” Nunn, Sr., sports writer,
manager and editor; Earl V. Hord,
lino-typist and office manager
• Wendell Smith, W. Rollo Wilson,
Chester Washington, and Bill Nunn,
Jr. as sports writers
• Charles “Teenie” Harris, Oceana
Sockwell, Luther Johnson, and
Alex Rivera as photographers
• Sam Milai, Jackie Ormes, Ollie
Harrington, and Wilbert Holloway
as artists/cartoonists
1940s
In 1942, the Courier initiated
the Double V campaign
for victory at home over
discrimination and victory
abroad over the Axis powers.
• Frank Bolden, John L. Clark, George
Schuyler, J.A. Rogers, Jesse O. Thomas,
Georgia Douglas Johnson, Julia BumryJones, Toki Johnson, Chappy Gardner,
Bernice Dutrieulle-Shelton, Jack
Cooper, George Barbour, and A. B. Rice,
columnists and reporters
state-of-the-art printing press able to produce
35,000 copies of the Courier per day. The
new plant and its press helped to increase the
circulation of the paper from 55,000 to over
100,000 within a few years. It peaked at more
than 350,000 in the 1940s.
The News
One of the most important hires was
Percival L. Prattis, an experienced publisher
who had served as president of the social
magazine Heebie Jeebie in Chicago before
coming to Pittsburgh as associate editor.
He became editor and later publisher of the
Courier after 1936 until his retirement in 1962.
As one of the leading African American
weekly papers, the Pittsburgh Courier covered
some of the leading stories important to black
Americans of the 20th century. One of the
major stories was the Dyer anti-lynching bill
The 1920s marked a major turning
point for the Courier. Vann had become
politically active as a city solicitor and political
committeeman. He used his influence on the
paper to espouse a greater political power for
African Americans. Because of his talented
staff, he was able to devote more time to
political activism and his legal career. The
paper continued to grow and in 1929, the
Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Company
plant was built at 2628 Centre Avenue in the
Hill District. The facility cost $104,000 with a
proposed in Congress in 1922. The brutal,
inhuman acts of lynching, hanging, and
other atrocities by whites were reported first
by Ida B. Wells in the 1890s and then picked
up by African American weekly papers well
into the 1940s. The Courier stayed on this
issue for most of the 1920s through 1940s.
The Scottsboro Boys case was another major
story that impacted all of black America. The
lawsuit dealt with the accused rape of two
white women by nine teenage black boys
on a freight train traveling from Tennessee
By the mid-’40s, the
Courier’s circulation
reached a peak of
over 350,000.
1950s
The Courier was a leading voice in
the debate of whether the 1954 Brown
vs. The Topeka Kansas Board of
Education Supreme Court decision
effected any changes in America’s
segregated society.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
27
Barack Obama meets with Dan Rooney
while visiting Pittsburgh during his
2008 presidential campaign.
Photo by Gail Manker.
to Alabama in 1931. The Courier vigorously
reported on this trial and its various appeals
for almost a decade. The paper sent a number
of reporters, including NA ACP head Walter
White, to Alabama to report on the case. In
the mid-1930s, the Courier began to follow
the career of boxer Joe Louis. Sportswriters
Chester Washington and Bill Nunn, Sr.,
reported from Louis’ training camps and
hosted him on his many visits to the Courier
offices in Pittsburgh. Courier headlines of
the great champ promoted the hero persona
of Louis and his exploits as the heavyweight
champion of the world.
1960s
28
In 1966, the Courier was
sold to the Sengstacke
family of Chicago. Today
it is published as the New
Pittsburgh Courier
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
|
SPRING 2010
Political party support from African
Americans was important in the 1930s
as the Courier—more than any other
African American weekly—and Robert
L. Vann—more than any other politico—
were responsible for the shift of African
American political party allegiance from
the Republican to the Democratic Party.
Vann’s endorsement of either party held
great influences nationally. He spoke in
Cleveland in 1932, stating that “Negroes
have changed their political philosophy…. I
see millions of Negroes turning the pictures
of Abraham Lincoln to the wall. This year I
see Negroes voting a Democratic ticket.” As a
result, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected
president of the United States.
g st
ge
s
In 1936, Robert L. Vann began to suggest
to the Roosevelt administration the needeed
U..S.
U
S
to establish a black combat unit of the U.S.
caan.
n
Army commanded by an African American.
eas,
ea
s,,
Roosevelt was slow to respond to Vann’s ideas,
but he did appoint Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., ,asas
U S.
U.
S.
the first African American general in the U.S.
Army. Vann knew that the U.S. might be be
ited
it
ed
engaged in another world war, having visited
Europe during the Nazi rise; he was even nat at
ju
ust
s
the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, sitting just
ean
ea
n
rows away from Adolf Hitler. His European
2000s
gh
In 2008, the New Pittsburgh
Courier had complete
coverage of the historic
campaign and election
of Barack Obama.
correspondents such as Joel A. Rogers were
ahead of other U.S. papers in reporting the
political developments in France and other
European nations to the Nazi and Italian
fascist regimes. Additionally, Vann sent J.A.
Rogers to Ethiopia to cover the Italian invasion
and occupation of the country.
After Vann’s deat h in 1940, th e paper
continued under the leadership of new editor
Ira Lewis. In 1942, the Courier initiated the
Double V campaign for victory at home over
discrimination and victory abroad over the
Axis powers. This campaign brought much
criticism from the federal government and the
paper found itself on the FBI’s sedition list.
Federal investigators visited Centre Avenue to
question staff and executives of the paper, but
no avail.
avai
av
aiil.l The Courier
C ur
Co
u ie
ierr continued
con
nti
t nued
nu
ued its
its
t Double
D
Dou
ou
oubl
ubl
be
to no
camp
ca
mpai
aiign
gn.
n.
V campaign.
Nationally circulated African American
weekly papers regularly reported on the civil
rights movement. The Pittsburgh Courier
had correspondents that covered events and
participated in investigative reporting. Alex
Rivera, P.L. Prattis, Evelyn Cunningham, and
others covered the southern civil rights
campaign. Edna Chapelle (McKenzie)
investigated Western Pennsylvania
communities and businesses that had
discriminatory practices and policies. The
Courier was a leading voice in the debate of
whether the 1954 Brown vs. The Topeka
Kansas Board of Education Supreme Court
decision effected any changes in America’s
segregated society. The paper continued to
report on civil rights by carrying the debate
and issues raised by the Vietnam War. Its
editors commented weekly about the civil
rights movement in addition to battle news.
The Courier posted photographs and bios of
U.S. soldiers and rep orted on t he deaths of
local men.
In 1966 the Pittsburgh Courier was sold
to the Sengstacke family of Chicago, owners
and publishers of the Chicago Defender,
the Courier’s longtime newspaper rival.
Today the paper is published as the
New Pittsburgh Courier . In recent times,
the paper covered the campaign of Barack
Obama, whose historic election showed
that the Pittsburgh Courier continues
to cover the major stories that affect
Americans lives.
Courier newsboys.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.
COME CELEBRATE THE
100TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE PITTSBURGH COURIER
AT THE HISTORY CENTER
The Senator John Heinz History Center
will open America’s Best Weekly:
A Century of the Pittsburgh Courier
in May, 2010, in celebration of the
paper’s 100th anniversary. Opening in
the Community Gallery on the History
Center’s fourth floor, America’s Best
Weekly will explore the history of the
Courier as a major media company
that impacted the lives of Americans
and the world through its journalistic
agenda to report the news and give
opinions on black life and culture.
Accompanying America’s Best Weekly
will be a display of 10 quilts made by
Tina Williams Brewer that chronicles
each decade of the Courier's history
from 1910 to 2010 using images from
the pages of the newspaper. With the
support of Rod Doss, publisher of the
New Pittsburgh Courier, America’s
Best Weekly will give History Center
visitors an opportunity to learn about
the founding and business of one of
the major newspapers of our time.
2010
2
In April, the New
Pittsburgh Courier
will celebrate its
100th anniversary!
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY
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