Pittsburgh storytellers connect at Voices of History event

By Karen Price

Elayne Arrington longed to go to college, and she knew that her only opportunity would be to excel academically.

Federal financial aid didn’t exist in 1957, her family couldn’t afford to pay tuition, and she wasn’t a talented athlete, but she was a gifted student. She studied hard, did extra reports and her academic record was exemplary. At the time of graduation, Elayne was at the top of her class at her high school in Homestead, a neighborhood outside Pittsburgh best known as the site of a deadly labor uprising in 1892. 

“It was my understanding that the person who was first in the class was called the valedictorian, and gave the valedictory message at the graduation,” said Arrington, who is African American. “But I was told that the valedictory message would be given by the class president, a white male who, I think, was third in the class. I was not allowed to give the valedictory message at graduation, where it was proudly announced that I scored the second-highest math SAT score in the country, and that I alone in our class was a National Merit Scholar.”

Arrington’s powerful story about her experience growing up in Pittsburgh was one of dozens shared with PA Humanities this summer as part of the Voices of History initiative. The project, launched in 2024 as part of PA Humanities’ 50th anniversary, is a statewide effort to collect and celebrate the stories, family histories, struggles and triumphs of Black Pennsylvanians in the 20th and 21st centuries. Of the storytellers who participated in three different story circles in Pittsburgh last summer, 15 were selected to digitally record their stories for videos that will be available to view on PA Humanities’ website.

Those storytellers gathered in early December at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in downtown Pittsburgh to view first cuts of a handful of those videos and share more about the stories they told. 

Pittsburgh-based writer, critic, humorist and satirist Damon Young emceed the event.

“Stories are such a part of what I do, stories are such a part of who we are, stories are history,” said Young, whose own story about growing up in the East Liberty neighborhood is included in the project. “Stories are memories. Stories are legacy.” 

Throughout the evening, audience members and storytellers alike found connection with one another. Maybe not everyone had a story about sneaking out of the house as a very young child in the Hill District, such as 80-year-old Reggie Howze, but heads bobbed in recognition as he talked about what the neighborhood was like back then.

“The Hill District never slept,” said Howze, who was a classmate of August Wilson. “The Hill District was so alive. The musicians club was right across the street and Pittsburgh was known as the gateway to the west so everyone coming from New York would come to Pittsburgh first. Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, you name it. Everyone came to Pittsburgh. And Pittsburgh was sharp. The ladies had these long white gloves and the men had their suits and I’d go put my pennies in the bubble gum machine and walk up and down the streets, and the streets were alive with music.”

Dr. Sheila Beasley told of her very first job selling tires in East Liberty, and how the African Americans in the neighborhood would interact with the Italians, their cultures, stories and food all mingling together. Valerie Thomas Njie told of her father, who made a name for himself in the 1950s as a television repairman but was more widely remembered because his shop was the only one that would extend credit to African American families, helping them to purchase their appliances. Debbie Norrell told of her parents buying their first home in 1954, and what home ownership meant to her family. 

Brenda Tate told of her immense pride in being one of the first African American women in the Pittsburgh Police Department and a story about a pivotal moment in 1979, early in her career. She also recalled a recent conversation with two young African American officers who told her that they got their jobs on their own, because they went to college.

“So I think we have to talk about, or at least let our young people know, that you didn’t just get here because you went to college,” she said. 

These videos and others from Pittsburgh will be shared on the PA Humanities website in early 2025. Story circles were held in Erie last fall, and those stories will be shared later on this year. The next story circles will take place in Scranton in February. If you live in Scranton and have a story to share, please click here.

Voices of History is made possible by funding from the Heinz Endowments and Erie Insurance.