Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement: A Century of Social Service and Activism

by Joe William Trotter Jr., Dick Gilbreath (Illustrator)

Overview

During the Great Migration, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became a mecca for African Americans seeking better job opportunities, wages, and living conditions. The city's thriving economy and vibrant social and cultural scenes inspired dreams of prosperity and a new start, but this urban haven was not free of discrimination and despair. In the face of injustice, activists formed the Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP) in 1918 to combat prejudice and support the city's growing African American population.

In this broad-ranging history, Joe William Trotter Jr. uses this noteworthy branch of the National Urban League to provide new insights into an organization that has often faced criticism for its social programs' deep class and gender limitations. Surveying issues including housing, healthcare, and occupational mobility, Trotter underscores how the ULP—often in concert with the Urban League's national headquarters—bridged social divisions to improve the lives of black citizens of every class. He also sheds new light on the branch's nonviolent direct-action campaigns and places these powerful grassroots operations within the context of the modern Black Freedom Movement.

The impact of the National Urban League is a hotly debated topic in African American social and political history. Trotter's study provides valuable new insights that demonstrate how the organization has relieved massive suffering and racial inequality in US cities for more than a century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813180700
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	11/02/2020
Series:	Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Joe William Trotter Jr. is Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and director of the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author or coauthor of numerous publications, including Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II, Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915–1945, and Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America. He lives in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Quest for Jobs and Housing
Promise and Limits
Surviving the Depression
Establishing a New Social Service Regime
Combating Inequality in the Postwar City
Navigating Civil Rights and Black Power Struggles
Confronting Decline and Facilitating Renaissance
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This innovative, interesting book makes a significant contribution to the fields of modern US history, urban history, civil rights, the history of the Black Power movement, and African American history. With a focus on the Urban League of Pittsburgh, Trotter contributes to the small but important body of scholarship on the National Urban League." — Brian Purnell, author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn

"This book clearly demonstrates the flexibility, pragmatism, and occasional militancy of strategies that the ULP pursued in promoting the interests of Pittsburgh's black population — even as it sometimes came up short in delivering on its commitments to women or less-affluent residents. Trotter's detailed study makes it abundantly clear that the national organization cannot be fully comprehended without a look at the local level." — Todd M. Michney, author of Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900—1980

Editorial Reviews

This book clearly demonstrates the flexibility, pragmatism, and occasional militancy of strategies that the ULP pursued in promoting the interests of Pittsburgh's black population—even as it sometimes came up short in delivering on its commitments to women or less-affluent residents. Trotter's detailed study makes it abundantly clear that the national organization cannot be fully comprehended without a look at the local level.

Todd M. Michney

This innovative, interesting book makes a significant contribution to the fields of modern US history, urban history, civil rights, the history of the Black Power movement, and African American history. With a focus on the Urban League of Pittsburgh, Trotter contributes to the small but important body of scholarship on the National Urban League.

Brian Purnell

"This innovative, interesting book makes a significant contribution to the fields of modern US history, urban history, civil rights, the history of the Black Power movement, and African American history. With a focus on the Urban League of Pittsburgh, Trotter contributes to the small but important body of scholarship on the National Urban League." — Brian Purnell, author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn

"This book clearly demonstrates the flexibility, pragmatism, and occasional militancy of strategies that the ULP pursued in promoting the interests of Pittsburgh's black population — even as it sometimes came up short in delivering on its commitments to women or less-affluent residents. Trotter's detailed study makes it abundantly clear that the national organization cannot be fully comprehended without a look at the local level." — Todd M. Michney, author of Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900—1980

From the Publisher