@article{857328,
      recid = {857328},
      author = {Whitaker, Mark,},
      title = {Smoketown : the untold story of the other great Black  Renaissance /},
      pages = {xxi, 404 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :},
      abstract = {"The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence,  and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an  unlikely place--Pittsburgh, PA--from the 1920s through the  1950s. Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for  August Wilson's famed plays about noble but doomed  working-class strivers. But this community once had an  impact on American history that rivaled the far larger  black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most  widely read black newspaper in the country, urging black  voters to switch from the Republican to the Democratic  Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It  fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro  Leagues and introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn  Dodgers. Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers  Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou  Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh  Gibson--and August Wilson himself. Some of the most  glittering figures of the era were changed forever by the  time they spent in the city, from Joe Louis and Satchel  Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Mark Whitaker's  Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung  community and a vital addition to the story of black  America."--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/857328},
}