Voices of History: Stories from trailblazing women

Welcome to Voices of History, a PA Humanities project inspired by the works of renowned playwright August Wilson and designed to showcase the voices of everyday Black Pennsylvanians. We launched the project in Pittsburgh, inviting community members to traditional story circles to share personal stories about their life in the 20th and 21st centuries in the Steel City. Fifteen people were selected to return and have their stories professionally recorded to help build a statewide archival collection. They offer tales of struggles, triumphs, family, community and more, stories which we’re excited to now share. 

In these videos, you’ll hear from three trailblazing women who took on nontraditional roles and excelled despite resistance. Each video brings their stories to life in their own words, enriched by archival photos.

“Walking a beat in the Hill”

Brenda Tate has lived in the same block of the Hill District all 75 years of her life. But in 1979, as a newly minted member of the Pittsburgh Police Department, she found herself assigned to work in a neighborhood she had never once even visited because people of color were not welcome. The environment at the station was tense, and an early encounter during roll call could have cost her her dignity had another officer not stood up in her defense.  

“Back in 1974, they were hiring police officers for the City of Pittsburgh Housing Authority Police Department. At that time it was a nontraditional job for women. … I worked at the Housing Authority Police Department for five years, from ‘74 to 1979. At that point I saw an advertisement for women interested in becoming a city of Pittsburgh police officer.”

– Brenda Tate

“Good cop”

Eunice Nelson took an oath to serve and protect the city of Pittsburgh as a police officer in the mid-1980s, but a lieutenant reacted to the presence of African American women on the force with derision and racist name-calling. After his particularly cruel treatment of a fellow female officer one day, Nelson had had enough. She filed a lawsuit to fight back against the way they were treated. 

“I was an experienced social worker when I went on the job so I knew how to treat people and how to speak to them. They made fun of me sometimes because they said the fact that she has the social work training she’ll probably social work us to death, or we’ll have to be saying ‘Yes ma’am’ and ‘no ma’am’ to people. I said it wouldn’t hurt sometimes just being nice to people.”

— Eunice Nelson

“School daze”

Dr. Elayne Arrington always believed that the student who graduated at the top of their high school class was the valedictorian and got to deliver the valedictory message at graduation. She soon learned otherwise, as the honor that should have been hers went to a white male who was third in the class in 1950s Homestead. A gifted mathematician who scored 797 out of 800 in math on the SAT, Arrington went on to become the first African American woman to graduate from what is now called the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering in 1961 and a distinguished career in the aerospace industry. 

“I was not allowed to give the valedictory message at a graduation where it was proudly announced that I scored the second-highest mathematics SAT score in the country, and that I alone in our class was a National Merit Scholar.” 

— Dr. Elayne Arrington

We’ll be sharing more videos over the coming weeks, so be sure to visit https://pahumanities.org/voices-of-history/. Next up: stories of community, including an unlikely gathering spot in East Liberty, using the law to build community, how children from Homewood played a role in the push for desegregation in Pittsburgh pools, and the vibrancy of the Hill District in its heyday. 

Are you from Scranton? Do you have a story to share? Sign up for Voices of History Scranton story circles or share your story here!

The Voices of History project in Pittsburgh is made possible through the generous support of The Heinz Endowments, Erie Insurance, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and individual donors.