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Legendary jockey Ronnie Tanner is coming home SEE PAGE A11
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 114 No. 20 Two Sections
MAY 17-23, 2023
thenewpittsburghcourier $1.00 Published Weekly
Scirotto: ‘A Dream Come True'
Gainey nominates Larry Scirotto to become Pittsburgh’s next Chief of Police by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
The moment seemingly everyone—or at least, every local media member— was waiting for finally came on the morning of May 3. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, standing on the first floor of the City-County Building, cameras rolling, announced his nominee for Chief of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. "I'm proud to stand here today to nominate Larry Scirotto to be the next police chief for the City of Pittsburgh," Mayor Gainey, engulfed with his usual voice of passion, said. Pittsburgh City Council will formally interview Scirotto during a public hearing on Thursday, May 18. All indications are that City Council will confirm Scirotto, though not 100 percent a guarantee. Scirotto told the New Pittsburgh Courier that he is African American. That makes him the first Black police chief for Pittsburgh since Nate Harper, who left the force in 2013. The "permanent" police
chiefs since Harper have been Cameron McLay and Scott Schubert. Schubert retired to start the summer of 2022, and Thomas Stangrecki had served as acting police chief since July 2022. Mayor Gainey reiterated his "admiration and appreciation" he had for Stangrecki, in his "excellent job" leading the bureau while the mayor, his executive team, and the search committee looked near and far for the city's next top cop. "Every single candidate that we interviewed was great," Mayor Gainey said. "Larry rose to the top. His deep ties to the city, inside knowledge of the bureau, and his outside perspective makes him the right choice to be Chief of Police and to continue on with our right policing strategy. Larry has shown in his 25 years of service that he is a capable leader, whose policies and work have made a direct impact on the lives of the people he served." Scirotto was terminated SEE SCIROTTO A3
LARRY SCIROTTO WAS NOMINATED AS THE NEXT CHIEF OF POLICE FOR THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH ON MAY 3. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
‘Negro Motorist Green Book’ exhibition on display at Heinz History Center by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
For African Americans in the mid-20th century, it was extremely dangerous to travel around this country. That’s no joke. Those words are precisely what came from the mouth of Samuel Black, director of African American programs at the Heinz History Center, as he thoughtfully discussed the “Negro Motorist Green Book.” The Green Book was a publication distributed nationwide between 1936 and 1967 that provided African Americans with a directory of restaurants, gas stations, department stores and other businesses that welcomed Black travelers, during a time when segregation was the rule in the South and often accepted in the North. Now, the Heinz History Center has unveiled Smithsonian’s Green Book exhibition for all to see and experience. Local
media, including the New Pittsburgh Courier, received an advance look at the exhibition on Thursday, May 11. The exhibit will be on display until Aug. 13. Access to the exhibit is included in the general admission to the History Center. “It’s interesting we call it a travel guide,” voiced Heinz History Center President and CEO Andy Masich, during the media preview. “But in many ways, it’s a survival guide for African American families traveling especially in the South, but really throughout America... this guide was the survival guide that told them where it was safe.” The Negro Motorist Green Book was started by Victor Green, who was a postman in Harlem, New York. Near the beginning of the vast exhibit on the Heinz History Center’s first floor is a photo of Green and some artifacts from Harlem, such SEE GREEN BOOK A6
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SAMUEL BLACK, WITH THE HEINZ HISTORY CENTER, SHOWS A PHOTO OF SCOTTY’S SERVICE GARAGE IN THE HILL DISTRICT. IT’S PART OF THE NEW EXHIBITION AT THE HISTORY CENTER ENTITLED, “NEGRO MOTORIST GREEN BOOK.” (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)