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‘Black Women in Opera: A Tribute to the Pioneers’ SEE PAGE A7
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 117 No. 23 Two Sections
JUNE 10-16, 2026
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The Pittsburgh NAACP makes a strong statement
THE PROCESSIONAL LINE, WITH NAACP EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS, AT THE WYNDHAM GRAND HOTEL, JUNE 5, 2026. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Human Rights Dinner returns; capacity-crowd attends by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
The NAACP Pittsburgh Branch made a bold statement Friday night, June 5. Led by NAACP Pitts-
burgh Branch President Jackie Hill and Pa. Speaker of the House, Rep. Joanna McClinton, the officers and closest constituents of the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch proudly made their entrance
into the main ballroom at the Wyndham Grand Hotel, Downtown. More than 500 people looked on as they watched the people who, collectively, are trying to turn the NAACP Pittsburgh
Branch back into the powerhouse branch it once was. The NAACP Pittsburgh Branch held its first Human Rights Dinner in at least five years on June 5, with the sellout crowd
making its own statement. "There's been ups and downs, but any progress that has been made in the City of Pittsburgh has been made by the Pittsburgh Branch of the
NAACP," Hill told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively at the event, held on a sunny First Friday afternoon into the evening, the sunlight SEE NAACP A5
‘Change is hard,’ Dr. Walters says, as PPS board votes to close 9 buildings, 12 schools by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
The Pittsburgh Public Schools district is going to look a lot different in a few years. Nine less physical buildings. Twelve less schools. Different grade configurations. Ask the superintendent and the school board president, and they'll tell you the changes are necessary. Ask many parents of kids in the district, and they'll tell you the exact opposite. "Every single one of y'all should be ashamed," said PPS parent Jazlynn Worthy, a Black woman who has ties to the advocacy organization 412 Justice, and who advocated that PPS not close schools. Worthy was inside the school board chambers at the district administration building when the board made its 6-2-1 decision to close the 12 schools, May 27. "Watch it be a (expletive) disaster," Worthy
exclaimed as she was led out of the chambers. "My kids' future, down the toilet," Worthy exclaimed. For years, Pittsburgh Public Schools has been grappling with the reality that its district, built for 40,000 students, has an enrollment that isn't even half of that number today. There are about 18,000 students in the district these days, good enough for second-largest in the state, but a far cry from the more than 32,000 students PPS had in the 2005-06 school year, which wasn't that long ago. That's a 39 percent decline in student enrollment in the past 20 years. PPS Superintendent Dr. Wayne Walters unveiled a "Future Ready Facilities Plan" to combat the declining enrollment and financial woes, which included the SEE PPS A3
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JAZLYNN WORTHY, a mother of kids in Pittsburgh Public Schools, is 100 percent against closing schools. However, the PPS Board of Directors voted in favor of 12 schools closing over the next few years. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)