Students Offer Plan To Renovate Hill City: Schenley High Group Prepares Models For Idea Youth Center in Present Building

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
The Beatrice L. Saunders Robinson Project
Robinson and Saunders Family Archives
Pittsburgh PA
December 1, 2010
( BBNS)

The following article titled "Students Offer Plan To Renovate Hill City" appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph on Tuesday, December 2, 1947.

Students Offer Plan To Renovate Hill City
Schenley High Group Prepares Models
For Idea Youth Center in Present Building

The six-month architectural effort of nine Schenley High school students went on display Monday when the board of directors of Hill City Youth Municipality viewed plans for redecorating Hill City.
The Project was begun by the Schenley students last spring when the board decided that the Bedford avenue center had deteriorated so much that general improvements would have to be made.
Designs Are Functional
Rough pencil sketches of the present Hill City accompany the finished drawings and three dimensional models of the exhibit. Although the finished art designs contrasted with these sketches seem Utopian and almost too full of youthful enthusiasm, they are functional and the contours of the building have been retained and adapted.
Not a new building when it was bought in 1944, Hill City was considered adequate for what was then just an experiment in the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Since it has become a City within a city, and a haven for young Hill District citizens who function with their own police force, judges, and mayors.
Not only do the youngsters conduct their elementary self-government in the building, but they learn crafts, hobbies, and games.
Since the founding of Hill City the 28 organized neighborhood gangs have become extinct.
Face Lifting Necessary
But the rooms are dark and much of the furniture is broken and in general Hill City needs the face lifting the students propose.
Louis Little, president of the board, announced that an organization program for completing the plans will be undertaken.
James S. Robinson, director of Hill City said that much of the elementary wood work will be handled in the center's machine shop.


*Blogger Black Buzz states that according to Jared Day a history professor at Carnegie Mellon University the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph wrote very few articles on the famous Hill City Youth Municipality even though Hill City was the first program of its kind in the United States of America.
The first Iindoor Horse Show in the city of Pittsburgh was held for the benefit of Hill City. And all the of the City's major newspapers covered the first indoor Horse Show, which featured many prominent Pittsburgh, and national celebrities and socialites.

Mrs Beatrice L Saunders Robinson Project

My mother started going to the American Newspaper Guild Conventions in 1949, as Chairman of the Courier Unit of the American Newspaper Guild. My great mother was also the Treasurer of the Pittsburgh Unit of the American Newspaper Guild Unit, and a member of the Executive Board of the Pittsburgh Unit for over 15 years and she said there were no persons of color at said Conventions.
I traveled with my mother on Convention trips to St Louis, Albany, Toronto, San Jose, New York and Boston Massachusetts. I never saw any other people of color or so-called Afro-Americans at those conventions.
The American Newspaper Guild planned many structured activities for the children, and family members of the Guild participants. And to the best of my recollection there were no colored kids or colored family members present in any of those Guild events or programs. If there were any Blacks present at any of those American Newspaper Guild Conventions they were passing for white, which could have been true.

Its very unfortunate that Kenneth Love's film titled "Newspaper of Record: The Pittsburgh Courier, 1907-1965 produced by the University of Pittsburgh failed to cover anything on the The Pittsburgh Courier's involvement in the American Newspaper Guild and the role that my mother played in the making of that history.
When Kenneth Love started on making his film my mother was still alive in 2002, and he could have interviewed her. There are so many aspects of the Kenneth Love film that fails to give a comprehensive view of The Pittsburgh Courier, and the real people that produced the paper that made the Courier a success. Therefore it is my position that Mr. Love's film titled the The Newspaper of Record: The Pittsburgh Courier 1907-19 65 on The Pittsburgh Courier is incomplete, but is is still a good film.
There is no mention of the Teamsters Union, and the financial impact the Teamsters had on The Pittsburgh Courier in Mr. Love's film nor the role that Jimmy Hoffa played relative to the pressmen, printer's and truck drivers, who were all members of the Teamsters.
The University of Pittsburgh was one of the most racist institutions in dominant culture in Pittsburgh, and Kenneth Love possibly for political reasons chose to highlight Pitts connection to the success of the Courier by giving praise to certain individuals with ties to the University of Pittsburgh.
My dad would often tell me that he wasn't able to apply to the Pitt Medical School because of their Quota system of one or zero Colored applicants.
I stated on a previous post that when my dad and a fellow person of color went out for Pitt's football team the legendary racist Jock Sutherland said " There is no room on Pitt's football team for colored boys."
My dad told me that he had some of his classes at Pitt with Pitt football player Bill Daddio, and my dad helped him with a lot of his course work, which was to difficult for Daddio to master and comprehend.
And that Jim Crow policy of refusing to let Blacks play on the Pitt football team remained at Pitt until the great Connellsville Pa running back Jimmy Joe Robinson broke the color bar in 1945. Connellsville is also the home to Notre Dame great QB Johnny Lujack and big Jim Braxton (FB- WVU), who did a lot of the plow blocking on the Buffalo Bills for one of the greatest running backs in the history of College and Professional football O.J. Simpson. Note Lujack, and Jimmy Joe Robinson played together on those great Connellsville teams in the early forties and their parents and grand-parents worked in the coal mines surrounding Connellsville, which is located in Fayette County Pennsylvania.
The Penn State Nittany Lions integrated their football team in 1941 with the Alston brothers Dave and Harry, and the great Wally Triplett was the first Black starter on the Penn State football team.
It is my hope that the Heinz History Center will give a more through in-depth examination/review and display in there Exhibit of The Pittsburgh Courier in February 2011, and highlight the people such as my mother who really made the paper a success along with Mr & Mrs Vann, Ira Lewis, P.L. Prattis, Edna Chappell McKenzie, Bill Nunn Sr. Carl Morris, and women such as Willa Mae Rice, Alma A. Polk, Hazel Garland, Toki Johnson, Ravella Tunie Hopson, Lucille Johnson Avertising Manager, Joan Ali, Esther Moore, and Mary Work, who were integral part of The Pittsburgh Courier's success. Blogger Black Buzz notes that Joan Ali and Rod Doss only worked at The New Pittsburgh Courier and they are both still presently employed at the Courier. Mrs Lucille Johnson has been retired for many of years and doing fine. And Mrs Ravella Tunie Hobson is presently in a Nursing Home.
Let us not forget the unsung pressmen, printers, and truck drivers who played a very vital important role to the success of the Courier.
Pressmen such as the late Merman Austin, Rodger Thomas and many more other valuable Courier employees who took pride in printing and producing the number one newspaper in the country.
Rodger Thomas is the brother of Marilyn Thomas Fountain, who is the wife of my friend and Herron Hill Jr high school, and Centre Avenue YMCA Swimming teammate Morris Fountain.
Morris' youngest brother Tony was one of the leaders of the Black Student Protest Movement at Pitt in the late sixties and early seventies who put persistent direct pressure on Pitt in getting the University of Pittsburgh to hire Black faculty members, increase the enrollment of Black students, establish a Black Studies Department, increase the number of Scholarships awarded to Black students and athletes. Anthony Tony Fountain was a fearless warrior, and he get's my lifetime Stand Up For Justice Award along with the late Robert Lavelle.
I also should have interviewed my mother more closely when she was alive to ascertain the other men who worked in the press room who printed and produced the Courier.
Working at The old Pittsburgh Courier gave each employee that worked there a great feeling of pride and appreciation to produce that best possible product, which is a classic example of true Black power.
My mother also was instrumental in getting her sister hired at The Pittsburgh Courier who was the late Esther Brooks Austin.
Aunt Esther was the first Black in the City of Pittsburgh to obtain the Crown of Miss Pittsburgh Railway in 1957 and her picture appeared in every street car in the city for a whole year.
According to one of my other aunts Lorraine Robinson Brown of Mechanicsburg PA my mom was also able to get her hired at The Pittsburgh Courier back in 1946.
My aunt Lorraine married the late Clifton Brown who is the brother the late great Jazz Bassist Ray Brown. Ray Brown was the best technical bassist in the history of Jazz, and I am also a fan of the late "Charlie Tijuana Moods Mingus."
My aunt Lorraine and Uncle Cliff named their second son after the famous Ray, and we call him Bummie. Bummie, Raymond Brown is presently an Investment realtor in Georgia and he formerly worked for many years as the General Counsel for AT & T in New Jersey.
My family lived at 524 Francis Street which was about 75 meters from the old Pittsburgh Courier that enabled my mother to come home every day at lunch time, and prepare my brother and I very nutritious meals for which I have already blogged about. Both of my parents worked in the Black community, and they also owned businesses in said Black community ins't that what true Black power is all about?
The only time my mother worked for a white business establishment is immediately after she graduated from Schenley high school in 1936.
My mother was employed in the House Keeping Department at the Joseph Horne Company located in downtown Pittsburgh while she took evening classes at Carnegie Tech. My mom told me how Horne's was flooded during the great Flood of 1936 and the impact of the flood had on her employment status at Horne's. Note that most of the downtown stores in Pittsburgh PA didn't hire any Blacks in any Departments so she felt that it was a blessing to get hired at Horne's. One must remember that in 1936 the U.S. was still in the Great Depression and jobs of any kind were hard and difficult to find and keep.
* The late great Frank Bolden was also a Titan at the old Courier and Frank attended Pitt at the same time my dad was on a track scholarship at Pitt. Frank's lovely wife Nancy Bolden (AKA) did everything in her power to get me a track scholarship to Kentucky State after I had broken the record in the 100 yard dash in the state of (Maine) Prep School State Meet and other records in the dashes.
I have just briefly talked about some of the outstanding women & men who worked at the Courier. And my mother Mrs Beatrice L. Saunders Robinson along with other similar situated employees played a very vital role in making The Pittsburgh Courier truly the Newspaper of Record.
*Now you know something about the life of Mrs. Beatrice Lee Saunders Robinson but there is a lot more to the rest of story.

* I would like to commend and give Kudos to the great professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh Larry Glasco who took the time out from his very busy schedule in the summer of 2009 to take pictures of many of the valuable documents in the Robinson and Saunders Archives in an effort to get the James S. Robinson Jr. and Beatrice Saunders Robinson Projects off the ground. Professor Glasco's encouragement, and wisdom has been an invaluable asset and a blessing as I go forth with said Projects. I would like to say Thanks Larry.