William Augustus “Gus” Greenlee (1893 – 1952)

Came to Pittsburgh from North Carolina in 1916 as part of the Great Migration. Became a local businessman and ran a longtime illegal lottery. Bought the Crawford Grill jazz club in the Hill Districtin 1933 and made it famous for the quality of its entertainment. Owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Pittsburgh’s Black baseball team, which he bought in 1931. Founder and president of the second Negro National League in 1933. The key force behind the construction of Greenlee Field, built for and owned by the Crawfords, a rarity in Black baseball. Greenlee Field stood on the north side of Bedford Avenue in the Hill District between Junilla Street and Watt Lane, now the site of Bedford Dwellings public housing development. Greenlee is buried in Allegheny Cemetery. (Photo source: Rob Ruck)

Daisy Lampkin (1883-1965)

Pittsburgh’s leading Black suffragist. Began activist career organizing consumer protests by Black housewives. Elected president of the Lucy Stone Woman Suffrage League in 1915. Represented that organization at a conference of the National Association of Colored Women in 1916. Vice chair of the Negro Voters League of Pennsylvania. Recruited many new members to the NAACP. An officer of the Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh’s best-known Black newspaper. Buried in Homewood Cemetery. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

August Wilson (1945 - 2005)

Acclaimed playwright best known for his 10-play series “The Pittsburgh Cycle,” which includes “Fences,” “The Piano Lesson,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama and inducted in the American Theater Hall of Fame. Buried in Greenwood Cemetery. (Photo: Associated Press)

Charles “Teenie” Harris (1908 - 1998)

Helped form the Pittsburgh Crawfords and played for the team. Photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier. Took perhaps the most iconic photos of Black Pittsburgh life for that period. Buried in Homewood Cemetery. (Photo: Charles “Teenie” Harris self-portrait circa 1940. Credit: Carnegie Museum of Art)

Joshua “Josh” Gibson (1911 - 1947)

Moved to Pittsburgh from Georgia when his father found work in the steel mills. Was the second Negro League baseball player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays, as well as teams in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Had a batting average of .466, the second highest single-season record in the major league. Buried in Allegheny Cemetery. (Photo: Rivers of Steel, Josh Gibson Foundation Collection)

Robert Lee Vann (1879 - 1940)

Longtime publisher and editor of the weekly newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier. Made the Courier one of the largest and most influential sources of Black news in the country with about 250,000 subscribers in 1938 and a distribution in 48 states and abroad, according to the Courier’s website. Earned law degree from the Western University of Pennsylvania (now University of Pittsburgh) and became one of five Black attorneys in the city in 1910. Buried in Homewood Cemetery. (Photo: circa 1933. Post-Gazette Archive)

K. Leroy Irvis (1919 - 2006)

As a leader with the local Urban League, led a first of its kind demonstration in 1947 against anti-Black employment discrimination at Pittsburgh department stores. Earned law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and became first Black assistant district attorney in Allegheny County. Served 15 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was unanimously elected its speaker in 1977, the first Black person to hold the office. Instrumental in forming the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Buried in Allegheny Cemetery. (Photo: Pennsylvania House of Representatives)

Ella P. Stewart (1893 - 1987)

First Black woman to graduate from the University Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy (1916). Operated the first Black-owned pharmacy in the Pittsburgh area, Myers Pharmacy — Myers was her surname during her first marriage. Also the first Black woman to pass the Pennsylvania Board of Pharmacy exam and the first licensed Black female pharmacist in the state. Held many prominent positions including president of the National Association of Colored Women and member of the National Advisory Committee on the White House Committee on Aging. Died in Toledo. (Photo: Ms. Stewart with some of her awards and citations, 1965. Don Strayer/The Blade)