Urban League's State of Black Pittsburgh addresses voting, housing

The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh held its annual State of Black Pittsburgh on Thursday. The forum aimed to tackle the issues of electoral impact and housing stability.

Inside the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Barco Law Library, about 100 community members convened to address some of the most pressing issues in the Black community. The forum, which lasted almost three hours, included two panel discussions, two breakout sessions and a debriefing discussion.

The voting panel included Kadida Kenner, CEO of the New Pennsylvania Project; Pittsburgh City Council member Khari Mosley; Miracle Jones, director of advocacy and policy at 1Hood Media; and Aundre Robinson, opportunity broker at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

The housing panel included Carlos T. Carter, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh; Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill District CDC; and Marsha Grayson, chief operations officer at the City of Pittsburgh’s Housing Authority.

The forum opened discussions around voting, housing, displacement, education and gun violence. It also served as a prelude to the State of Black Pittsburgh report and Black Policy Agenda, which will be released this year by the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, led by John Ukenye, advocacy and policy officer.

“The importance of voting and community engagement, providing civic education, is the best thing that can be done in this moment,” Kenner said. Her organization has registered 40,000 Pennsylvanians to vote in the last two years.

According to Kenner, many people in the Black community are not feeling very passionate about voting.

“They are not feeling any political party, and we are having to have very long conversations to overcome the objections in this moment,” she said.

Though the panels centered around different topics, the solutions and discussion overlapped at times, with the talk centered on economic prosperity, sustainable organization and an activated network. After the panel discussions, there were two breakout sessions discussing housing and voting, respectively, which allowed for further discussion with the panelists.

Kenner spoke about the past and block voting (a neighborhood going to vote together) and how 1 in 5 Black Pennsylvanians are eligible to vote but are not registered. He also emphasized the importance of keeping culture and music in civic engagement education. Mosley recalled the National Hip-Hop Political Convention that took place 20 years ago in Newark, N.J., which brought out prominent hip-hop artists like Busta Rhymes, Chuck D and Doug E. Fresh. After the performances and celebration, people were registered to vote.

“Engaging unlikely organizers and organizing unlikely voters, we try to use cultural tools to pull people in,” Mosley said.

“Civic engagement is the most important tool that we have right now,” Jones said. “We want to get people into politics. We find that if we have things that people care about that are on the ballot, then they are going to come out and care.”

Robinson said that bringing Black people to a place where they can thrive in this city is extremely important.

“Having people that look like us willing to do the work to impact our people,” said Robinson, who is from McKeesport, and is a student at Penn State University studying social work.

Progress toward making things more equitable in Pittsburgh has been slow, according to many panelists. Carter reminded the audience that Black people are not a monolith but a diverse group, and policies should reflect that.

A few young teenagers from the Black Male Leadership Development Institute, a program for Black and African American men in grades 9 through 12, co-sponsored by Robert Morris University and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, sat together.

“I took a lot from today. It’s something good for people my age to attend and learn something,” said Amiel Battles, 14, of BMLDI and a student at Central Catholic High School.

Journey Washington, 23, from PA Youth Vote, said she was very inspired by the discussions. She was interested in getting to work regarding spreading accurate information to people formerly incarcerated who wanted to learn more about their voting rights.

Housing proved to be the most layered conversation and one that could not be finished within the time allotted. Many attendees asked for further discussions on housing. The panelists addressed the deep need to fill the housing gap.

Milliones said there are people throughout Pittsburgh working to prevent the displacement of Black, low-income and working-class people. There is also a need to move from solely a place of advocacy to policy-making.

The top issues in housing, as outlined by the panelists, include the need for the transformation of vacant land in Black communities. Milliones cited that the Hill District has 600 acres of vacant land. The need is to turn that vacant land into wealth-building opportunities that allow the wealth to stay in the Black community.

Grayson emphasized the importance of understanding the need to eliminate homelessness in its various forms. This can include being outside and unhoused or couch-surfing and sleeping in a car after work. Grayson also explained how homelessness can permeate into so many other areas of life.

Carter said that regarding housing, there is a need for self-sufficiency but also access to capital. All the panelists and attendees grappled with the question of what success looks like.

“The conversation does not end here. Black lives do matter,” Carter said.

The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh is still collecting input for its State of Black Pittsburgh report and Black Policy Agenda. To keep up with future panels, click here.