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History and Mission
The war-time demand for steel and the shortage of European immigrant labor that traditionally filled the jobs in Western Pennsylvania mills attracted nearly 20,000 southern black field workers to Pittsburgh during World War I. They came in search of better-paying jobs and a better life, but adjustment to city ways was hard for them, and most were forced to live in crowded, unsanitary tenements or bunkhouses. Their future became even more problematic when production declined after the war, and white veterans returned to reclaim their old jobs.
To address the "migrant problem," a group of civic leaders, both black and white joined together in 1918 to form the Urban League of Pittsburgh, whose mission, shared with the National Urban League Movement, is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.
The "business" of the Urban League throughout the subsequent 90 years has remained one of securing equal opportunity through advocacy and direct service in those areas basic to human life: employment, education, housing, health and welfare, with emphasis on services to families and young people.
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