America's Best Weekly: A Century of The Pittsburgh Courier
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Feb. 11, 2011 - June 3, 2012
4th Floor 
Watch a video preview by the Post-Gazette.
In commemoration of The Pittsburgh Courier’s 100th Anniversary, the History Center explores the newspaper’s reach and impact throughout the nation over the past century.
Through a number of photographs, artifacts, and audio-visual displays, America’s Best Weekly: A Century of The Pittsburgh Courier profiles the major contributors who propelled the Courier from a 1907 start-up publication to the most influential African American newspapers in the country.
Highlights of the America’s Best Weekly exhibition include:
- The oldest-known existing copy of The Pittsburgh Courier from Nov. 5, 1910.
- A powerful display on the Courier’s coverage of the Civil Rights Movement and war time issues, including a World War I military uniform worn by Captain Donald Jefferson of the 351st Field Artillery, adjacent to a white robe worn by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Highlights from the Courier’s extensive reporting on black athletes
- A camera belonging to legendary photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris and a re-creation of the Courier’s newsroom in the 1950s.
- A detailed look at the birth of The Pittsburgh Courier, featuring previously unreleased scholarship related to founders Edward N. Harleston and Robert L. Vann.
- Artifacts from the Courier’s political coverage of various U.S. presidents and campaigns, including a button from the 1932 Democratic National Convention and a photo signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
America’s Best Weekly: A Century of The Pittsburgh Courier is sponsored in part by The Pittsburgh Foundation, the University of Pittsburgh, the Falk Foundation, and the African American Chamber of Commerce.
Check out audio and video clips from the exhibit:
Speech written by Robert L. Vann, former president of The Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Company
President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1940 Campaign Trip to Pittsburgh
WQED-TV's "Horizons" show featuring the Courier exhibit.
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