BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson and Saunders Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
December 28, 2010
BBNS
PITTSBURGH...On July 23, 1947 James S. Robinson Jr., Executive Director of Hill City Youth Municipality received a call from City of Pittsburgh, Mayor David L. Lawrence who said " Jim we have a white priest leading a mob from the South Side threatening to burn out the colored families who just moved into the Arlington Heights Public Housing Projects, and you do what you have to to get the priest and mob under control." Mayor Lawrence further stated to Mr. Robinson that he couldn't trust too many white cops to stop that mob from harming those colored people who just moved into the Arlington Heights Projects.
According to my dad he informed Mayor Lawrence that he was taking his Hill City Crew along with several Colored Policemen to get the South Side priest and mob under control. My dad stated that when he arrived on the scene at said Housing complex that the priest in question was being very vociferouss in his objections to colored families who had moved into said projects.Further my dad informed me that priest was getting the crowd worked up into a frenzy.
My dad said his men put up barricades that prevented the mob from going into the building complex to attack the newly arrived colored residents. Each one of my dad's crew had Thompson Sub-Machine guns and other weapons and those men were as follows:
1. Willis Brooks
2. John A. Cundieff
3. Pronty Ford
4. Oliver Mason
5. Parker Thompson
6. James H. Williams
7. Big Blue (Sam Wilson)
*8. James S. Robinson Jr.
"My dad looked the priest in the eye and said if you or any of the other folks in your delegation take another step your blood will flow in the street and my dad told the priest to go home." My dad clarified the point that the colored people had a right to live in those Projects that were founded through public tax dollars by the United States of America while the bigoted priest mumbled some racial epithet under his breath. " When the white mob saw those Black men standing there with Thompson Sub machine guns ready to use they dispersed in an expeditious fashion."
Who is really teaching the true history of Pittsburgh, PA? Note there is no mention of this incident in The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania Chronology in reference to Blacks in Pittsburgh.Who is controlling the flow of vitally important historical information, and who is telling the history of Pittsburgh with true objectivity and thorough impeccable scholarship?
According to my dad Mayor Lawrence told him that the priest in question had been defrocked from the Catholic church.There was no media present and not even the Pittsburgh Courier. The white media very rarely covered happenings and events in the Black community back in the 1940's. The white press avoided Black news events as though the Black community was plagued by a curse.
I haven't contacted the Pittsburgh Diocese but I'll bet you ten too one that they don't any record of the priest getting defrocked.
This post is part of the James S. Robinson Jr. Project
*Author's Note: Mayor Lawrence had asked my dad to take a office in the City-County Building with no job responsibilities. I attended Herron Hill Jr. High School with Big Blue's son Ellis Wilson. As head football coach of the Kay Boys I coached against Big Blue's other son Sidney Wilson who coached for the "House of Culture" which was also located in the Hill District. I'll never forget in one game between the Kay Boys Club and the House of Culture my prize pupil (Sammy Bam Clancy) who I started off playing defensive end caught the late Warner Macklin who was a fast nifty running back for the House of Culture for a seven yard lost on a double reverse.
*Note Warnie and Sammy will later team up to win a state basketball title for the Fifth Avenue Archers, and many people consider that Fifth Avenue team to be one of the greatest teams in the history of Pennsylvania Scholastic history.
Please read and review September 30, 2010 article titled "Hill City's Jim Robinson Throws Out Two Gangsters From Family Confectionery in the Hill District Section Of Pittsburgh PA" at the following address:
http://blackbuzz.blogspot.com/
Please read June 30, 2010 article titled "Teacher, Pioneer on Civil Rights Scene" at http://blackbuzz.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
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