Black Lives Matter protests in small-town southwestern Pennsylvania: We mapped dozens of locations.
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To show the scale of Black Lives Matter protests in Pennsylvania, we mapped a few dozen locations in small towns that held anti-racism rallies.
What has motivated residents of small-town Pennsylvania to join in the movement for racial equality?
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Beverly Perkins stands among a couple hundred demonstrators in the middle of East Pike Street in the heart of downtown Canonsburg —population 8,760 and 87% white. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in June. Perkins, who is Black, says Canonsburg “still has a lot of small town ideology,” and that her teenage son and nephew, who stand alongside her today, have been called racial slurs and “told to go pick cotton.”
At the center of the throng, about a dozen organizers in their early 20s take turns speaking into an amplified mic and megaphone. They talk about George Floyd, voting, gender, microaggressions and, among other things, instructions on how the crowd will soon march several blocks to the Canon-McMillan School District offices. One young woman sings the Black National Anthem.
Police officers have cordoned off two blocks of Pike Street with plastic jersey barriers.
Gov. Wolf, Mayor Peduto call for police reform on the sixth day of Black Lives Matter protests in Pittsburgh
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The calls for reform in Pittsburgh come at a time when the movement to defund police departments is growing stronger in the U.S. and demonstrators all over the world have been marching for justice in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 26.
COVID-19
24 PA counties can begin reopening; Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald hopes Pittsburgh area will follow soon
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On Friday, May 1, Gov. Tom Wolf announced 24 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties will move from the red to yellow phase in the state’s three-phase matrix for restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
None of the counties moving to the yellow phase are within Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of Friday, Allegheny County, with a population of about 1.2 million, has reported 1,319 cases of COVID-19. In this area, state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine cited population density as a particular reason for not moving to the yellow phase. In an interview after the governor’s announcement, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said he wasn’t aware population density was a concern. “I was actually a little surprised.
Power of Place
Power of Place: How the neighborhood you grow up in affects your future
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Research reveals that Pittsburgh children who grew up just blocks away from one another have had very different life outcomes in income, employment and incarceration, among other results.
In the LGBTQ community, faith brings comfort and pain. Six Pittsburghers reflect on feeling rejected for who they are.
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Members of the LGBTQ community reflect on their relationship with faith after facing rejection from religion.
DEVELOP PGH
‘Milking’: How some absentee property owners contribute to blight in the Pittsburgh region
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Urban design expert Alan Mallach believes owner Prasad Margabandhu was trying to “milk” the failed property by attempting to eke out rent revenue while spending as little as possible on repairs or taxes.
DEVELOP PGH
Owner of troubled Valmar Gardens apartments has record of problem properties, unpaid taxes and ‘shell games’
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Property owner Prasad Margabandhu’s practices serve as a prime example of the challenges municipalities and tenants face when trying to hold landlords accountable for failed properties and dangerous conditions.
Aftermath: Synagogue attack
Tree of Life trauma victims may find allies in neighborhoods experiencing chronic gun violence
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Experts in trauma care differentiate between sudden violent events, such as the Tree of Life shooting, and chronic forms of violence, such as war zones or ongoing gun violence within neighborhoods. In Pittsburgh, chronic gun violence occurs in some neighborhoods, but not others, and that trauma is disproportionately carried by the city's black communities.
Aftermath: Synagogue attack
Treating trauma and society’s ‘collective illness’: Mental health experts rally to provide long-lasting care after Tree of Life shooting
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Some public health researchers believe we need to address a “collective illness” that allows such hate to thrive in the first place
