Pittsburgh Celebrates Black History Month | 2025 Events and Exhibits

Pittsburgh's Jazz Legacy

Pittsburgh Jazz Live International

Located between New York and Chicago, Pittsburgh has had a unique history as a stopover location for jazz greats back in the day. From 1920s through the 1960s, Pittsburgh’s Hill District was known as the "Crossroads of the World." Jazz artists from around the country would perform with Pittsburgh's many acclaimed musicians in many of the Hill District's acclaimed venues, such as the Crawford Grille.

An early contributor to the success of Pittsburgh's jazz legacy was star athlete, sportsman and businessman Sellers McKee Hall, Pittsburgh’s first Black music promoter. He was responsible for bringing the biggest names in jazz to Pittsburgh for his popular dances that drew crowds of 1,500 to 2,000 to the Pythian Temple and other venues.

Related: Jazz in Pittsburgh

Today, jazz can still be enjoyed throughout Pittsburgh's bars and clubs. The annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, hosted each summer by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center brings local and world renowned musicians to celebrate Pittsburgh's jazz history and legacy.

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Chuckman

The Pittsburgh Courier

The Pittsburgh Courier was a Black newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until 1966. Edwin Nathaniel Harleston, a self-published poet and a guard at the H. J. Heinz Company food packing plant in Pittsburgh, started printing the paper at his own expense in 1907. Generally about two pages, it was primarily a vehicle for Harleston's work, and he printed around 10 copies which he sold for five cents apiece.

In 1909, Edward Penman, Hepburn Carter, Scott Wood, Jr., and Harvey Tanner joined Harleston to run the paper, and they named it Pittsburgh Courier after the Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, Harleston's hometown. The five men sold most of the copies throughout the Hill District. On May 10, 1910, the Pittsburgh Courier was formally incorporated. By the 1930s, the Courier was one of the top Black newspapers in the United States. The tradition continues with the advent of the New Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly newspaper catering to the Black communities in Pittsburgh.

Charles "Teenie" Harris was the preeminent photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, documenting the daily lives of Pittsburgh's Black community from 1935 to 1975. The Teenie Harris Archive of more than 70,000 images is now permanently housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art and is considered one of the most detailed and intimate records of Black urban experience known. Today, more than 60,000 of Harris' negatives have been digitized and are available online!

August Wilson African American Cultural Center Galleries

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Joey Kennedy

August Wilson African American Cultural Center

A Downtown institution, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center is dedicated to generating artistic, educational and community initiatives that advance August Wilson's legacy and celebrate Black culture and the African diaspora. The center, named for the late Pittsburgh playwright, is a multi-purpose venue featuring three art galleries, live performance space, meeting areas and unique educational opportunities.

On Feb. 20 at 6 p.m., the AWAACC is hosting the 2nd Annual Envisioning A Just Pittsburgh exhibition opening reception. Engage with artists, experience their work, enjoy performances and join in celebrating their contribution to reimagining Pittsburgh as a more inclusive city for all. The event is free and open to the public.. And, don’t miss August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape, an exhibition dedicated to the life and works of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson.

1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords Team Photo and Bus

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Heinz History Center

Special programs abound at the Heinz History Center for Black History Month, including two public programs. First, join their 2024 From Slavery to Freedom Film Series on Feb. 12 for a free, virtual screening of The Hero, a documentary that tells an inspiring and honest story of how the Angolan people are trying to reconstruct their lives with dignity and resiliency after forty years of uninterrupted war.

The African American Program of the Heinz History Center presents the 11th Annual Black History Month Lecture: “The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride.” on Feb. 20, 2024, from 6 -7:30 p.m.

While you're at the Heinz History Center, there are also multiple long-term Black history exhibitions on display.

From Slavery to Freedom details more than 250 years of Black history.
Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation exhibit lets you step inside Pittsburgh's premier jazz club, the Crawford Grill, and listen to music from some of history's most prominent jazz musicians, such as George Benson, Billy Strayhorn, Stanley Turrentine and Mary Lou Williams.
Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum showcases Pittsburgh’s unmatched Negro league baseball legacy.

New Horizon Theater

Layon Gray's Feed the Beast runs at the New Horizon Theater Feb. 13-23, 2025. Set in 1932, the play follows a young doctor who uncovers the disturbing truths of the unethical Tuskegee syphilis experiments. The play takes the audience on a journey through time, spanning 40 years following five unknowing participants in this secret study. Through their lives, this haunting and emotionally charged play sheds light on the brutal realities of this deceitful study. Tickets are still available, with senior, student and group rates available.

O'Reilly Theater

Trouble in Mind, a visionary satire once banished from Broadway, comes to Pittsburgh for the first time, in a premiere destined to enthrall us all.

Wiletta Mayer is the preeminent Black actress of the 1950s and the star of a new show headed to Broadway, though nothing could prepare her for the culture clash that erupts between the director and her fellow cast members in rehearsal for this new, "progressive" play. Trouble in Mind is a cutting backstage satire, a play within a play, and a case of life imitating art as playwright Alice Childress refused to let producers define her story. This visionary production should have premiered on Broadway in 1955, but didn't get its due until 2021, 66 years after its intended debut.

The production runs from Feb. 5-23, 2025 at Pittsburgh's O'Reilly Theater. Click here to buy tickets.

Freedom Corner

Located at the intersection of Centre Ave. and Crawford St. in Pittsburgh's historic Hill District neighborhood, this monument marks a critical point in Pittsburgh’s extensive Civil Rights history.

In the late 1950s, urban renewal ripped through Pittsburgh’s vibrant, and predominantly Black, Hill District neighborhood. In 1960, residents posted a simple sign: "Attention City Hall and U.R.A: No Development beyond This Point! We Demand Low Income Housing for the Lower Hill!" The intersection was deemed Freedom Corner and would become a launching point for demonstrations seeking social justice.

The Freedom Corner monument was dedicated on April 22, 2001. The site continues to serve as an important gathering spot for individuals who advocate for peace, justice and equality.

Sam Black of the the Heinz History Center talks about the garden space with park visitors.

From Slavery to Freedom Garden

The From Slavery to Freedom Garden at the Frick Environmental Center displays plants used for food and medical purposes by freedom seekers during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Garden is a launching point for learning about the history of our lands, and the generations of people who lived off of and cared for them.

Black Railroad Workers Feature at Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center's Miniature Railroad & Village®

Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center

The Miniature Railroad & Village® at Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center features several models that represent Black Pittsburghers with an influence on American history prior to 1945. Each model includes its own story - from the birthplace of Jazz greats at Crawford Grill to the Hill District Home of Daisy Lampkin, a dynamic Pittsburgh woman who was the leader in the civil rights and women's suffrage movements. There are a total of seven featured models including Ebenezer Baptist Church, Daisy Lampkin House, Pittsburgh Courier Building, The LeMoyne House, Crawford Grill, Black railroad workers and Pullman Porters.

Pittsburgh Cultural Treasures

The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, BOOM Concepts, August Wilson African American Cultural Center and New Horizon Theater are four of the 16 Black-led culture organizations designated in the Pittsburgh’s Cultural Treasures Initiative. Learn more about this initiative.