First, William Anderson’s longtime auto body shop was vandalized, then racist graffiti, including the N-word, was sprayed on the side of his business.
Still, Anderson, the longtime Homewood business owner and political activist, said he’s standing strong through it all. He spoke at a press conference on Feb. 5 at the Freedom Unlimited building on Wylie Avenue, joined by Tim Stevens of B-PEP and representatives from the likes of Casa San Jose and the National Council of Jewish Women in a sign of solidarity.
“When something happens to one of us, it will eventually happen to all of us,” Anderson said. The racist attack on Anderson’s shop occurred on Jan. 21. Four days earlier, a man was caught on camera vandalizing an Israeli flag that sat in front of a woman’s home on the North Side.
“When something happens to the Jewish community, and no one says anything, then they move onto the African American community,” Anderson said. “Unless we stand together as a people, this hate will continue.”
Police named a suspect in the flag incident. Police have yet to make any arrests or name suspects in Anderson’s auto body shop incident. Anderson’s shop is located on Finance Street.
“We are not victims, we are survivors,” Anderson said.
The community largely assisted Anderson financially via a gofundme page he set up to help pay for the equipment the vandal or vandals took from his business in late December 2025. Nearly $5,000 had been raised through 42 donations as of Tuesday, Feb. 10.
In the case of who left the racist graffiti, that’s still a mystery.
“Such theft to our Black-owned businesses is, in itself, a form of economic violence to our community and it is absolutely unnecessary,” voiced Stevens, CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project. “…Particularly if done by a Black person, just being honest. We must instead find ways to build up our community and those in the White power structure in metropolitan Pittsburgh must have a renewed and powerful commitment as we begin a new year to help heal our Black community by openly and fully adopting and fully implementing what has been called DEI programs.”
Turning to the N-word being plastered on Anderson’s business, Stevens remarked: “Many citizens of our city, commonwealth and our nation now feel a freedom, a liberation to say and do whatever racial and hate-filled act they wish to do against Black, brown, Latino, Jewish and LGBTQ communities…In this past year our nation has been torn apart by those who seek to separate us by race, by religion, by sexual orientation, by class.”
Stevens even said that the U.S. is starting to feel like the same ills that Black people experienced in the 1950s and 1960s, Black people are still experiencing today.
B-PEP CEO TIM STEVENS
Other speakers had Anderson’s back, too, like the new Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO, Jennifer Thompkins. “What occurred to my brother, William Anderson, and his property unfortunately is not an isolated incident,” she said. “It is a sobering reminder that these attacks on democracy are real, they are present, and they are escalating in our communities.” B. Marshall, with Stop The Violence Pittsburgh and who puts on the huge Juneteenth festivals in Pittsburgh, added: “We have very few Black businesses in the City of Pittsburgh, so when somebody attacks a Black business, it’s trying to hurt us collectively. Our whole agenda is to maintain our Black businesses. We ain’t gonna stop. We’re gonna support (Anderson). We’re pushing forward.”
B. MARSHALL SAYS HE SUPPORTS WILLIAM ANDERSON. (PHOTOS BY CHIEF IKHANA-HAL-MAKINA)