QUEENS AND KINGS OF THE HILL
As the saying goes, do not judge Smoketown by its cover, which suggests its theme is black entertainers. Whitaker’s work ranges much more broadly and deeply, illuminating how those who made Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, their destination in the Great Migration and before, upon entering the realm of Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie and George Westinghouse, built African-American communities on foundations those white industrialists laid where the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers connect.
In slavery days Pittsburgh was a stop on the covert route north toward freedom. Industrialization made the city America’s Ruhr, offering employment to all and encouraging a way of life in the Hill District. Between the 1920s and the 1950s, in that neighborhood, also known as Little Harlem and Little Haiti, residents—my parents included—contributed to a scene of rich diversity and incredible accomplishments. In my middle- and upper-class slice of the Hill, “Sugartop,” our neighbors included crooner Billy Eckstine’s sister; sportswriter, managing editor, and later Steeler scout Bill Nunn Jr.; and social columnist Toki Schalk. Photojournalist Charles “One Shot Teenie” Harris documented the city’s civil rights movement experience, everyday life, and social events; my mother, Dolores, regularly showed up in Teenie’s spreads. The Hill-based —America’s largest politically significant black-owned newspaper, a memorable history lesson and an emotional look back. As Whitaker recounts, Pittsburgh public high schools Westinghouse and Schenley had prestigious music programs that produced scores of stars, such as Earl “Fatha” Hines, Mary Lou Williams, Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner, Billy Strayhorn, Lena Horne, and Billy Eckstine. Black Opera Company president Mary Cardwell Dawson was Pittsburgh-born and -bred, as were playwright August Wilson and artist Romare Bearden. I commend this book not only to my fellow black Boomers but anyone interested in the real life of these united states.
