Trying to research the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s early visits to Pittsburgh is a challenge. The source where you’d expect to find quotes and photos — newspapers — hardly covered the civil rights leader on hisfirstfewtrips to the city. The Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Press wrote short briefs announcing his visits but didn’t seem to send reporters or photographers to cover King, who was then famous for leading the Montgomery bus boycotts.
But a rally of 10,000 people at Forbes Field in 1960 was enough to attract some media attention and Pittsburghers finally heard from the man who’d become one of the greatest orators in American history.
“If America is to survive it must solve this problem,” King said of segregation. “You will ask, then, how long will it take? And I say it will not be long before black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants will say we’re free at last.”
From left, bandleader Count Basie, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Southern integration leader Obadiah Simms attend “Freedom Jubilee” at Forbes Field, July 9, 1961. (Post-Gazette)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is interviewed by WAMO’s Charles Gordon during WAMO’s broadcast of “Freedom Jubilee” at Forbes Field, July 9, 1961. (Post-Gazette)
King headlined the Freedom Jubilee rally again the next year.In an interview with the Post-Gazette, he called for an end to poll taxes and literacy tests, two common voter suppression methods targeting black voters.
“I don’t mind being a trouble maker if its creative trouble I’m bringing about,” he said. “I think it’s necessary to bring about tension — so long as there is non-violence.”
King continued, telling the PG, “I feel there is a small minority in the South that really fights integration, but the silence of those who do not wish to make a stand or who are indifferent is appalling.”
The civil rights leader’s next appearance in Pittsburgh received more prominent coverage in Pittsburghers newspapers. In the 4 years since his Freedom Jubilee appearances, King had delivered his “I have a dream speech,” won the Nobel Peace Prize and lead the Selma to Montgomery March. Coverage in the Pittsburgh Courier, then one of the country’s most influential black newspapers, documents King’s rise to national prominence.
When King walked into the University of Pittsburgh’s student union in November 1966, an overflow crowd of 1,000 greeted him. ThePG story on his visit focused on King’s belief in non-violent protest being African-Americans’ “most potent weapon” in fighting for equality.
While calling riots “self-defeating” he told the crowd that a riot is “the language of the unheard.”
“Summers of delay” in ignoring to the plight of African-Americans, King said, will lead to “winters of riots.”
He also incorporated his stance against the Vietnam War into his message of racial and economic justice.
“Some people are more concerned about winning the war in Vietnam than they are about winning the war on poverty right here at home,” he said. “I must say to you no matter how much I’m criticized for it I never intend to adjust to the madness of militarism.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King speaks at the University of Pittsburgh in November 1966. (Ross Catanza/Post-Gazette)
The Pitt visit would be his last speech in Pittsburgh. King was assassinated 17 months later, April 4, 1968, at a hotel in Memphis. In Pittsburgh and throughout the country cities held memorial services and tributes to King.
Marchers make their way down Centre Avenue on their way to Point State Park for a memorial service, Sunday, April 7, 1968, less than three days after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. During the march, riots continued in the city’s Hill District. (Donald J. Stetzer/The Pittsburgh Press)
Linda Hall, left, and Jane Smathers join hundreds of other local college students after a memorial march for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., April 6, 1968, in City Hall, Downtown. (Anthony Kaminski/Pittsburgh Press)
As the nation mourned King’s death, African-American communities across the country, including in Pittsburgh, reacted to his murder with riots. In“The week the Hill rose up,” The Digs chronicled how simmering frustration over decades of poverty, powerlessness and prejudice boiled over in the Hill District following King’s assassination.
Children walk through the Hill District on Palm Sunday, April 7, 1968, as smoke from the Mainway Super Market fire billows behind them during unrest and violence following the murder of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Harry Coughanour/Post-Gazette)
A raging lumberyard fire on North Homewood Avenue late in the afternoon of April 8, 1968, cast huge clouds of smoke over the area. This was one of several riots in the city following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Smoke from nearby fires hung in the air — looting and burning broke out in Homewood on this day, after a weekend of riots in the city’s Hill District in the wake of the murder of the Rev. King. (Post-Gazette)
National Guardsmen move up Centre Avenue at Devilliers Street in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in the midst of riots on the afternoon of Sunday, April 7, 1968. The Hill erupted in the days after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Al Herrmann, Jr./The Pittsburgh Press)
National Guardsmen at the intersection of Homewood Avenue and Formosa Way in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood on Monday, April 8, 1968. (Morris Bermann/Post-Gazette)
“Drop that gun and get out here,” a man named “Brother Phil” shouts at National Guardsman Carl Fox during the riots that seared Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 7, 1968. Fox was son of Alma Speed Fox, then executive director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP. (Donald J. Stetzer/The Pittsburgh Press)
In the years and decades that followed, Pittsburgh paid tribute to King’s message of equality in churches, parks and on streets across the city.
Elaine Bowie of the Shady Child Care Center holds Ashley Battles, 2, to look at the plaque in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. at the East Liberty station of the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, Jan. 19, 1987. (Mark Murphy/Post-Gazette)Celeta Hickman of Beltzhover leads a crowd in a chant during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march through Downtown, Jan 17, 1994. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)Ninth-grader Konata Gaskins sings “We Shall Overcome” at a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jan 17, 1988, at McNaugher Education Center on the North Side. (Judy Lutz/Post-Gazette)Angela and Letitia Brown wait to perform a cheerleading routine at the Hazelwood YMCA’s tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. as Isaac William, right, waits, Jan. 15, 1989. (Vince Musi/Pittsburgh Press)Jean Crocker, front, assistant pastor Alan Curtis, back left, and his wife, Ella Rawlins join in prayer on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 15, 1989, at Covenant Church in Wilkinsburg. (Susie Post/Pittsburgh Press)Betty Blackwell of Homewood sings with the crowd marching to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Jan. 15, 1996, in Wilkinsburg. (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)Errol “Mobutu” Reynolds of the Hill District raises his hands in worship as the Lemington Gospel Chorale sings “We Shall Overcome” during an ecumenical observance held 50 years to the hour of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, Wednesday, April 4, 2018, at Trinity Cathedral, Downtown. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette)The Rev. Nikki Porter of Penn Hills raises her fist as she sings “Glory” from the movie “Selma” with the Gospel Mass Choir during a tribute to the late Greek Archbishop Iakovos and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunday, March 11, 2018, at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Liberty. “I didn’t live in that time when my parents lived, but to represent that movement was special to me,” said Rev. Porter, who is minister of music at the church. (Stephanie Strasburg/Post-Gazette)Gabrielle Gressem, 6, celebrates with dad, John, after she’d read a portion of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Monday, Jan. 15, 2018, at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on the North Side. “He changed America so black people and white people can go to the same places,” Gabrielle said of King. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
John is a photo editor at the Post-Gazette interested in Pittsburgh history and old photos. You can find him on Twitter @jham1496and send ideas for future Digs posts to jhamilton@post-gazette.com.
