In 1788, when western Pennsylvania residents petitioned the General Assembly to create Allegheny County, four of the petitioners were free Black men.
In the 1800s, Pittsburgh was home to many stops on the Underground Railroad, and the neighborhood now called Lower Hill, then dubbed Arthursville, was a major stop. Railroad agents included barber John B. Vashon, believed to be the city’s wealthiest Black man at the time.
A century later, during the Civil Rights Movement, the corner of Centre Avenue and Crawford in Pittsburgh became known as Freedom Corner; it was the meeting point for protesters who marched on City Hall and Washington.
These are just a few of the many chapters of Black history in Pittsburgh, the city I live in and represent in the state House of Representatives. It’s history we must remember.
Unfortunately, our federal government is doing everything it can today to erase Black history.
In a textbook example of doublespeak, the Trump administration has taken many troubling steps to “restore truth and sanity” to American history. What that really means is they are squelching public spaces that explain our country’s legacy of racism to new generations.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed,” wrote James Baldwin, one of the great chroniclers of the Black experience in 20th century America. “But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
It’s critical—especially at a point in time when the White House is mounting an all-out attack on diversity—that we face our history.
This month marks the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, which should be a time for us to remember our shared American story, but in Washington, D.C., it’s noticeably different this year.
President Trump opened Black History Month by posting a shameful, racist meme on his social media platform depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes.
At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which typically hosts an array of Black History Month programming but is now controlled by Trump, nothing whatsoever has been scheduled on Black history.
This comes a year after the president ordered the Smithsonian Institution and the Secretary of Interior to conduct a review to the end influence of what it calls “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
In Philadelphia, Trump’s order led to the recent dismantling of a slavery exhibit at the President’s House, which commemorated the Black people enslaved by President George Washington at Independence National Historical Park.
Columnist Jenice Armstrong of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that the removal of the slavery exhibit “hurts my soul,” and she added, “It would hurt President Donald Trump’s soul, too, if only he had one.”
Also in question has been the fate of a notable photograph of a whipped slave whose back is covered in thick scars after reports that the photo was ordered removed from a national monument in Georgia.
At national parks, the Trump administration has removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from the list of annual free-entry days. Yet it added to the list Trump’s birthday, which falls on Flag Day.
There are still institutions committed to preserving Black history, and we must continue to support them. I recently accepted an appointment as a board member at one of these institutions, the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, and I’m proud to have done so.
Heinz History Center exhibits include “From Slavery to Freedom,” which covers 250 years of African American life and history and the fight for civil rights in Pittsburgh. It’s an in-depth exhibit where visitors can learn about Pittsburghers such as Maj. Martin L. Delany, who during the Civil War became the highest-ranking Black field soldier in U.S. history, and Daisy Lampkin, a civil rights activist and leading organizer in the Women’s Suffrage Movement.
They are part of the real story of America’s diversity, a story that is painful, heroic, and complicated—but certainly worth preserving.
State Rep. Aerion A. Abney represents Allegheny County’s 19th Legislative District.
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