In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Pittsburgh’s newsstands suffered from a serious lack of quality Black papers. Out of the six white dailies in the city, only one included Black news. The Pittsburgh Press’ segregated “Afro-American News” column was far from ideal however, and the little reporting that the Press did offer mostly consisted of sensational accounts of crimes, affairs, and other sordid material which hardly painted the Black community in a favorable light.
This all would change when Nathaniel Edward Harleston, a security guard at the H.J. Heinz food packing facility, began a newspaper as a way to publish some of his poetry. With the help of a couple of friends from the Heinz plant, the first official issue of the Courier was printed on January 15, 1910. Just a few years later, Harelston’s new paper would expand to include headquarters at 1212 Wylie Ave (though this would later move downtown), and its own publishing plant at 2628 Centre Ave.
With such deep roots in the largest historically Black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, it is no surprise that The Pittsburgh Courier would become one of the most prominent voices in Black America within just a few decades. Not only would the paper go on to provide a rich account of Black life over the years, it would also serve as an instrument of agency in the fight for civil rights.
A Fight for Rights
Much of the Courier’s early reputation as a “crusader” paper for Black rights can be attributed to its first editor, Robert Lee Vann.
One reporter, Edna Chappel, was even assigned to visit businesses in the greater Western Pennsylvania area and write about her experiences of discrimination there because of her race.
Vann was the first African American to graduate from University of Pittsburgh’s school of law, and he was one of only five Black lawyers in Pittsburgh at the time. After helping to find investors and using his law expertise to draw up the incorporation papers, Vann took over as editor of the Courier when Harleston left in late 1910.
From the very beginning, Vann made his vision for the Courier clear; the paper would serve to “abolish every vestige of Jim Crowism in Pittsburgh”, as he wrote in an early editorial. In the first years, he would use his writing to address pressing issues in the Hill District, calling for a Black building and loan association as well as a Black hospital to combat the housing and health crises there.
A future politician himself, (he would serve as Assistant Attorney General in the Roosevelt administration), Vann called for the readers of his paper to organize in politics. When the Courier began to have national influence in the early 30s, Vann’s writings carried increasing weight in Black politics. His opinion in one 1932 editorial that “negroes have changed their political philosophy... This year I see them voting a Democratic ticket” has even been credited by some historians with significantly contributing to Roosevelt’s victory later that year.
This foray into national affairs continued into the mid-20th century, as the Courier began to report more and more on the Civil Rights movement across the country. They covered stories like the Scottsboro Boys, Brown v. Board, and the campaigns of A. Phillip Randolph, while their sports reporters doggedly followed Black boxer Joe Louis as he won repeated victories in the ring.
The Courier reported on local injustice towards African Americans as well. They frequently covered the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh’s Negro League baseball team, and fought for major league desegregation in their editorials. One reporter, Edna Chappel, was even assigned to visit businesses in the greater Western Pennsylvania area and write about her experiences of discrimination there because of her race.
The Courier was known for hiring young, Black talent like Chappel who might never have been given a job at another paper. Famous Pittsburgh photographer Charlie “Teenie” Harris was briefly employed at the paper, as well as William Gardner Smith, a novelist who spent time in the company of other great Black authors like James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Other reporters at the Courier are less well known, but their work was foundational for the paper.
Later Years
After the death of Robert Vann in 1940, the paper did not find an executive editor who could match its first in passion and vision until Percival L. Prattis accepted the executive editorship in 1956. Prattis had worked at the Courier for years prior, and had already been instrumental in its development before becoming editor. Vann had originally hired him in 1935 after seeing his impressive work at the Courier’s rival Black paper, The Chicago Defender, where Prattis had been city editor. Prattis used his connections in Chicago to expand the circulation of the Courier in the Midwest, where the paper had previously struggled to find distributors in its competition with the Defender.
Before he became executive editor, Prattis reported on reconstruction after the war. He heavily covered the creation of the United Nations, even personally attending the founding conference in San Francisco. He also reported on the conflicts in the Middle East, something which was not often seen in Black papers.
In the mid-1950s, the advancement of the Civil Rights movement was beginning to convince many establishment white papers to take Black news more seriously. As competition with these white dailies increased, the Courier began to struggle financially. Despite this, Prattis increased the circulation to a peak of 350,000 copies, with 14 editions nationwide. This likely is due to his aggressive style; under Prattis, the Courier reported stories of injustice which its competitors were simply unwilling to publish.
Eventually, the Courier’s money troubles proved too much to overcome, however, and the paper was sold in 1966 to John Sengstacke, owner of the Defender. He relaunched the paper the next year as The New Pittsburgh Courier. By then, many of its finest reporters and editors had left, including Prattis and Bolden, and the paper would never again reclaim its previous quality or national influence.
Over the half-century of its publication, The Pittsburgh Courier went from a two page collection of a Steel City security guard’s poems to a national paper which changed the landscape of Black life in America. As Frank Bolden once said in an interview, the Black press acted as an “advocate of all our dreams, wishes, and desires.” Without that small printing plant in the Hill, dutifully churning out issues week after week, Black Americans would not have had the chance to see their histories, sufferings, and longings given a voice in the work of the Courier.
