The awards are presented by the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation and honors the legendary former publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, Robert L. Vann.
Used with permission of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
George Barbour was KDKA radio’s first Black news reporter.
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When protesters seeking voting rights for Black Americans made the 54-mile trek from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, a Pittsburgh reporter was there.
It didn’t matter to KDKA radio newsman George Barbour that his boss considered it too dangerous for a news outlet to send a Black reporter to the Deep South to cover a racially charged story. He was determined to go. And he talked KDKA into it.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
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When Ervin Dyer arrived in Pittsburgh more than 30 years ago as a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he realized there were many stories left untold about the city’s Black communities. As he began to tell them, he quickly recognized the “spirit of independence” in communities like Hazelwood, East Liberty and the Hill District that pushed residents to fight for better lives. For example, the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s oldest Black community, was once known as “Little Hayti,” to align itself with the independence of Haiti in 1804. “In the Hill District, you see people fighting for better education and for having a say in what happens in their community. That advocacy is a direct legacy of Haiti’s independence. It’s something Hill residents haven’t given up on,” Dyer said.