by Louis ‘Hop’ Kendrick, For New Pittsburgh Courier
This week’s column is being written with a heavy heart. I was born in the city of Pittsburgh and except for the two years spent in the army, I never left except for a vacation. I was actively involved in politics from 1952 to 2000 and those years provided me with insight into the multitude of problems we as Blacks were confronted with. Over the years I became comfortable that we were on the verge of confronting a multitude of them and that we would solve them. Yes, I thought that Blacks in Pittsburgh were a totally different breed than those in major cities such as Chicago, New York, Detroit, etc., because they were consumed with guns, violence and death. However those of us who believed that were greatly mistaken. Yes, we failed to understand that local Blacks confronted with an unlimited number of problems and elected Blacks and everyday concerned Blacks and Blacks who thrived on grants failed to understand we were sitting on a volcano that could erupt at anytime.
Overwhelmingly we deluded ourselves that the Democratic Party that Blacks have served for 80 years more faithfully than any other voting bloc and yet had received less in return, still we voted straight Democrat.
On October 22, last week the local Democrats held a ward meeting in the 12th District and made note of the fact that Pittsburgh Blacks were last in the nation of cities our size to get a home mortgage, car loans, or receive a contract from the City of Pittsburgh or Allegheny County.
This election I will support and vote for Summer Lee, U.S. Congress; John Fetterman, U.S. Senator; and Josh Shapiro, Governor and Austin Davis, Lt. Governor.
In my next column I will tell you why I was an active Republican for 30 years.