Former city councilman and activist Sala Udin, who worked with the local anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s, quoted poet Maya Angelou, “No sun outlasts its own sunset, but it will rise again and bring the dawn.”

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and U.S. Attorney David Hickton also spoke, as did representatives from the United Steelworkers, the Allegheny County Labor Council and a diverse group of clergy including Rev. Tom Smith of Monumental Baptist Church, Rabbi Danni Aaron of the Jewish Community Center, and Mt. Ararat’s own pastor Rev. Dr. William Curtis.