“During Black History Month, people always seem to celebrate Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and other people, and we thought it’d be a good idea to honor, in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s bicentennial, Black people in Pittsburgh,” said William Marshall, CEO and founder of Stop the Violence-Pittsburgh.
Marshall said he’s proud of this year’s list of honorees and felt it was important to honor these individuals now because too often those who work hard aren’t recognized until they pass; he wants to “give them their flowers,” now, while they are living. He said upon asking them to accept the honor, many of the honorees expressed how humble they were to be chosen and that meant a lot to him. “That’s the joy I get out of doing this.”
The idea for the symposium and gala, Marshall said, came about after he was contacted by the city last year, upon the completion of his annual Juneteenth celebration, asking him to organize an event that recognized the African American impact on the city.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who spoke at the Feb. 1 press conference held at the Heinz History Center to announce the event, said, “This is going to be the first significant, major event to celebrate our 200th anniversary. In over 200 years there have been significant accomplishments, significant advancements from the African American community that has made Pittsburgh ‘Pittsburgh.’ It’s significant that on Feb. 25 we will be recognizing many of those that are still with us and thinking about many of those who aren’t with us anymore, but who have had that impact on the shaping of this city.”
He added, “But It’s also important that we recognize the future and what we can do to make sure that new leadership is born, raised, and given opportunity and accessibility to make Pittsburgh an even a greater city.”
And bridging the gap between the past and the future, by showing Black youth where they have come from and where they can go, in hopes of giving them a sense of history for their self-betterment, is the main purpose of this event, Marshall said.
“Our priority was to get this information to the younger generation so that they can see that they have some history, some purpose; so that they don’t think they have no value. It helps build self esteem,” he said.
And by building self esteem, Marshall said it will eliminate the feeling of worthlessness, and, hopefully, even the senseless violence in the Black community that may be a result of that feeling.
“It’s very important to learn your history and learn who you are. If you don’t know who you are, how can you expect to make it in the future? If you don’t know your past, you have no diagram for the future,” he said.
Marshall has already put action towards his plan of bringing history to the youth. With the help of several sponsors, he said he has collected enough money to invite 600 Pittsburgh high school students to the event. He is now in the process of contacting the schools.
Along with the award ceremony, the historic occasion will include presentations of proclamations from state and local government, a moment to reflect on trailblazers who have passed, and feature entertainment by the Afro American Music Institute’s Boys Choir, Travis Malloy, Jordan Welch & Yahweh RYSE, Shailen Abrams & Soul Raydio, The Deryck Tines Group, the Kevin Howard Band, the AAMI Jazz Group, Teresa Hawthorne and many more.
Although the evening is in observance of Black history and the city’s bicentennial celebration, Marshall said it means much more. Proceeds from the symposium and gala will go towards his upcoming annual Juneteenth celebration which brings awareness to addressing the violence in the community. He promises that it will be bigger than years prior and said the positive response has received thus far has been overwhelming.
Marshall said he knows that there is a Higher Power behind what he is doing and is grateful to all the volunteers and sponsors that have been apart of this event. Noted sponsors are the POISE Foundation, University of Pittsburgh, CRICKET Wireless-Smithfield, Rice Enterprises LLC and McDonalds, the Rivers Casino, Pittsburgh Class Center, Carnegie Museum of Art-Teenie Harris Collection and Pittsburgh Pirates.
(Tickets are still available for the event. For more information, call 724-205-9376 or email [email protected].)
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