(Photo collage by Natasha Vicens. Photos via The LeMoyne Community Center archives, Sen. John Heinz History Center, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh archives and African American Registry archives)
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This story was based on reader submissions that placed a spotlight on many powerful, but largely untold Black stories in Pittsburgh. While we could only choose a handful, we want to thank all of our readers who submitted ideas. To see the original call for submissions, visit here; the form remains open. With you, our journalism is made better.
From a bathhouse abolitionist to a stereotype-defying comic, there are countless stories of innovation, courage and accomplishment by Black people in the Pittsburgh region.
While PublicSource strives to represent the Black community in coverage year-round, we are taking some time this Black History Month to honor four historical figures whose inventions, discoveries and efforts are rarely highlighted.
Here are their stories:
Pearl Harris, innovative educator
While living in Washington, Pa., Pearl Harris started her own “head start” program after being denied employment as a teacher in the area. The federally funded Head Start we know today was created in 1965 to help children from low-income families prepare to succeed in school. Harris’ program predated that.
Harris, who began teaching in Maryland, was one of the six million Black Americans who sought opportunity above the Mason-Dixon Line during the Great Migration. From 1916 to 1970, the widespread practice of white supremacy and a lack of economic opportunities pushed Black Americans to Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other Midwest and East Coast cities.
An educator with a keen eye for procedure, Harris noticed the lack of preparation Black students received entering into grade school in her new hometown.
In 1943, many of the Black children in the area that were pre-kindergarten age were being misdiagnosed with learning disabilities or socioemotional delays and failing basic academic skills tests. Many then went on to fail the first grade.
Harris designed a preparatory curriculum specifically designed to reverse the high rates of low achievement that was largely a result of racism and poverty, not academic ineptitude.
The success of Harris’ program, along with work of like-minded educators, went on to be replicated throughout the country.
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