- [Narrator] Major funding for this program was made possible by Pitt Ohio with additional major funding by UPMC and generous support from these funders.

Thank you.

(gentle orchestral music) (gentle upbeat music) It's a quiet morning at Esther Bush's house.

Having recently retired, the woman with enough awards, degrees, and commendations to fill a small warehouse is enjoying a cup of tea and a look back at a life of service.

And if any of that makes her sound soft spoken or restrained, you don't know Esther.

- She will be missed.

She's a great person.

Treat everyone beautiful.

And we all love her.

- Thank you.

- I think that she carries that fearlessness and that boldness.

She has to do that.

If she's going to do the work, she has to tell the story and tell the story the way it is.

- Why is America like this, when to me, it always seemed like there was enough wealth to go around?

How dare you try to keep this group, or this sex of people out of an opportunity to achieve.

- And what I can say to you is that there are no more minorities that own homes, which is the greatest asset, the greatest way to build wealth, than there were 50 years ago.

- People in our community understand the basic notion of fairness, and they want a fair society.

But when you get into talking about how that actually plays out for people who are white versus black, that gets uncomfortable.

- President Bush, how is the state of Black Pittsburgh now?

- The state of Black Pittsburgh is trying to claw its way up.

We still have many challenges.

- She has been a cheerleader for Pittsburgh for three decades, and a cheerleader for life all of her life, and I think that's her down to Earth approach to who she really is.

- Because I want people to be all that they can be and all that they wanna be.

Don't restrict yourself.

Let's all take somebody along.

(upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] It was an announcement that made headlines everywhere.

After 27 years running the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, one of the nation's top chapters, Esther Bush was retiring.

- Give me a hug, Ms. Bush.

- Of course I can give you a hug.

- And she will be missed.

And we all love her.

(gentle upbeat music) - It is really challenging to think about life after Urban League, because people won't let me.

And the people won't let me part is a compliment, but it is still something that I cannot wrap my arms around.

But I'm looking forward to learning (laughs).

- So that was the total for 13.

- Oh, we didn't do bad at all.

The leadership.

So African American leadership directories that we produced, and the two health books on the status of black health in Pittsburgh.

- [Narrator] It's been nearly three decades of building partnerships, meeting challenges, and fighting for progress.

Whether it's corporate, governmental, or philanthropic, building those partnerships has been essential to the success of Esther and the Urban League's mission.

Grant Oliphant is the former president of the Heinz Endowments.

With an annual grant making average of nearly $70 million, the Heinz is one of the leading foundations in the United States.

- The mission of the Heinz Endowments is to change the region and make it better.

It's as simple as that.

But as beautiful and wonderful a place as Pittsburgh is, it has some real challenges, and one of them is around the disparity that exists in terms of race in this town and creating a community that is generally for everyone where everyone has the same caliber of opportunity to be successful and to thrive.

- I am really pushing, right now, individuals to advocate for themselves and for business and industry, don't point out, "This is what we're doing for blacks in our corporation," point out "How are we going to help the entire city move from A to B?"

- Esther called and said, "Hey, we need to talk," and there hadn't been a great history of the foundation and the Urban League working together, at least recently.

And so I said, "Sure."

And I wasn't sure what to expect.

All I knew was that I was gonna end up saying "yes" to what (laughing), because Esther had a way of just being very clear about what she needed and why it was important.

- And quite honestly, what all that has meant for me every single day for the last 27 years here in Pittsburgh, and the last 41 years in general, is quite honestly doing what I wanted to do in the name of moving black folks closer to equity in the city of Pittsburgh and in the United States of America.

- [Narrator] The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is home to a legacy of black art and history.

(gentle upbeat music) At the helm is Janis Burley Wilson.

- I've been the president since September of 2017, and our mission is to be a home for the arts, storytelling, and exchange of ideas around the African American experience and for learning the African diaspora.

(upbeat jazzy music) Well, I met Esther socially through my parents.

They are very involved in the community.

There were numerous times over the last 20 years when I've called her and said, "I need to come across the street and talk to you and share my ideas," get her advice.

And then she would go and do her work (laughs) and make things happen.

I think that that's what makes Esther so special is that when she says she's going to do something, she's going to do it.

You can always count on her, that reliability and just unwavering support.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - What we're looking at here is a receipt from the state of Mississippi in 1859 that shows this person owned 40 slaves.

- [Narrator] Esther Bush's home is filled with artwork, treasures, and mementos from her years of work and travel.

She is a Maasai warrior from Africa, and she's really very special, because there were not too many female warriors in the Maasai tribe.

And so she is very, very special.

- [Narrator] Esther grew up in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood in a close-knit family with parents who expected and wanted the best for their children.

- My mother's a former teacher, and so everything had to be right, and you had to be ready for school.

And my father was always in love with trucks.

He first came to Pittsburgh, he bought a dump truck, and then eventually he owned a fleet of 18-wheelers.

We thought we had died and gone to Heaven.

And I said to my father one day, "Daddy, I wanna be a truck driver."

And my father said, "You can't be a truck driver.

You're a lady.

You're a woman."

And so the thought of him teaching me, he said straight up he wouldn't teach me, and I had a problem with that.

I had a problem with restrictions on women and restrictions on black folks.

- [Narrator] It was at Westinghouse High School that she discovered the possibilities.

- What we are looking at here are the cheerleaders of Westinghouse High School in 1969, and I am extremely proud to say that I was the co-captain of the cheering squad.

I loved being a student at Westininghouse High School because I felt like I was coming into my own, and not just Esther Bush, but everybody around me.

So as there were riots throughout the country, as people would be seen on the news with the hoses, and the dogs, and all of those things, it was like this is unbelievable, but I always felt that anybody, black, white, young, old, rich or poor, male or female, should be whatever it is they want to be if they were willing to work for it, train for it.

why not do it?

And so that's really what led me to the Urban League.

I first started working at the National Urban League June 5th, 1980, and I felt like I was big time, number one, 'cause I was in New York, and I was with the Women Affairs Division.

I purposefully would go on a construction site and just look around, and literally ask for the foreman, and say, "I don't see any African Americans or people of color, and I don't see any women.

Do you have any?"

- [Narrator] Her work with the National would lead to her role as president and CEO of the Hartford, Connecticut chapter, but her hometown would soon come calling.

- I'm Evan Frazier.

I'm the president and CEO of The Advanced Leadership Institute.

The Advanced Leadership Institute is really committed and dedicated to cultivating black executive leadership.

- The TALI Program ensures that African American leaders are equipped with the academic instruction as well as practical application to Excel in the workplace.

- I was just really a year, year and a half out of college at the time, and I had an opportunity to serve on a search committee that actually went out to to find Esther Bush and encourage her and try to convince her that Pittsburgh is the right place.

Esther Bush was, she was a national talent, and to be able to bring someone like that to Pittsburgh was a real win for our city.

- [Narrator] After accepting the position, Esther took on the enormous task of bringing the 2003 National Convention to Pittsburgh.

- Yes.

- Here we are in January, 2003.

You're very close to that convention, about seven months away.

Are you ready for it?

- Of course we're gonna be ready.

The planning, of course, has taken an awful lot of time but the city of Pittsburgh has absolutely come around.

I'm talking about people that are on public welfare, through corporate executives.

- [Narrator] Though not all members of the community were happy with convention itself, and an appearance by President George W. Bush- - To your fellow Americans.

- [Narrator] The gathering would prove to be a great success for the city and the chapter.

- It's been a fabulous, fabulous career and life, because it's an opportunity to express who I am and what I feel.

- [Narrator] Through the years, Pittsburgh has had many champions in the ongoing work of social justice.

One of Esther's closest allies is Tim Stevens.

- Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project.

We call it BPEP.

And our mission is very simple, that African Americans vote in each and every election, not just when there's a Barack Obama, or Reverend Al Sharpton, or Reverend Jesse Jackson, but each and every election.

- [Reporter] Tim Stevens and the Black Political Empowerment Project have joined the legal fight against them.

- We're aiming to make sure that our votes count, and we don't need any political shenanigans, who's going to disenfranchise that opportunity and that right that we have as citizens.

I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't remember when I first met Esther Bush.

She's just so part of my life.

And I don't know if she remembers this, but after the death of Jonny Gammage, which was October 12th, 1995, out of that came the first consent decree in the nation.

Pittsburgh was under a federal consent decree for five years, but we took the tragedy and created creativity and possibility for justice.

Esther Bush was my partner.

When we went to DC, she hosted a press conference in DC around the death of Jonny Gammage.

Esther Bush did that.

- How many people are you gonna offend because you speak up about police brutality and then say "Yeah, there's some black people here that need some jobs too."

It takes internal fortitude to do that.

Esther has it.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Duquesne is a small town in Pennsylvania's Mon Valley, once a vital part of the region's legendary steel industry.

It's also home to one of the three family support centers run by the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

Denise Hill heads up the Family Growth and Development Department.

- Oh, the free meals at the church?

- Right.

- Yeah.

The family centers provide a myriad of services.

We really work with the community to meet their needs, especially around parenting and to helping their families become more stable in the community.

So we have a number of collaborative partners, like the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, where we can do emergency food pantry services.

Through the county, we have a program called Hello Baby that I absolutely love.

And that she's eligible for her and her baby, for a variety of things to help them, you know, help her through the first year of life and get her sort of acclimated with her new baby.

We have social services available for families.

We have mental health services at some of our centers where families who are having some difficulties can come for some help.

(upbeat music) We do a lot of fun things.

We have family fun night, where parents come, they plan activities, anything from movies to Easter egg hunts.

So we do a lot.

I think with a little bit of help and people who are really dedicated to their jobs, we try to manage to to help the communities where we live.

- [Woman] Just doing a little bit of training.

- Oh, okay.

What's the training today?

- This is part two of the money- - Wellness?

- Yes, financial wellness.

- The financial wellness.

- Yes.

- Okay.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] The centers also serve as a welcoming resource for neighbors helping neighbors.

Keisha Stribling and Tieasha Lewis are the president and vice president of the Parents' Council at the Northview Heights Support Center.

- They help me because they let me know about different resources so that I can tell people in our neighborhood who don't come to certain meetings at the center, me letting them know of different resources, such as the free clothing, the free food.

- What the ladies who run the program, them looking like me, it helps me to be able to say, "Yeah, I can do this.

This is where you guys came from.

I can buy a home."

They show us the steps of how to build our credit and leading us in the direction of getting us a home.

- They help us to obtain employment, GED, help you with bus passes- - Yeah.

- A bunch of different resources- - Yeah.

- That help not just African Americans, but anybody in the community who wants to be a part of the Family Support Center.

- My name is Faith Harfield.

I am a family development specialist at the Northview Heights Family Support Center.

That is through the Urban League.

And what I do is I support families.

The Duquesne Center has clothing.

They will allow us to come over and get that.

That's what's so important.

It's their goals.

It's not my goal for you to have a driver's license, you know?

It's your goal to have, you know?

When they have their own goals and they accomplish them, it's just amazing.

You know, it's amazing.

I like that.

- And for me, it's just a sense of pride in what we do and how we help, and seeing people rise up and rise over their barriers gives me great joy.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] For over a century, The Urban League has worked to positively raise the public and personal prospects of African Americans.

(upbeat music) Most recently, the Pittsburgh branch would launch an impressive list of programs and initiatives, including opening the city's first charter school, trips to Africa, publishing and releasing The State of Black Pittsburgh reports as televised Town Hall meetings, bringing together some of the region's best and brightest.

- Hello, and welcome to the 2019 edition of State of Black Pittsburgh, a community forum.

- I'm honored to be sitting here tonight with a woman known and appreciated by so many people in Pittsburgh and beyond.

Esther Bush is the president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

Welcome.

How are you?

- Thank you.

I'm great.

- [Narrator] Alan V. Trivilino serves as board chair for the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, and is Senior Vice President for PNC Investments.

- It's an outstanding organization.

I'm very proud to be part of the work that the Urban League does.

Partnering with the corporate community and with businesses is a very important part of the Urban League's mission, because it really helps break the cycle of poverty.

And it's also a way to ensure that there's a stronger community for all.

- [Narrator] Another path to a stronger community is through home ownership, an elusive goal for many African Americans.

Fortunately, the Urban League has a plan for that.

- I decided I wanted to buy a house.

I went through a couple of different programs to buy a house.

I ended up at the Urban League, and they helped me get my credit in order.

- My name is Victoria Goins.

I am the vice president of programs and services here at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Through the horrific spotlight that has been put on George Floyd and other cases, disparities have become more and more apparent.

So the Urban League is intent on putting an emphasis on home ownership so that more and more people of color can attain that as the creation of wealth.

Understand the importance of building credit.

Understand the importance of owning a bank account.

- I love the yard outside.

I love the space.

It's just way more than I ever expected to have in my life.

It's not impossible.

Look at me.

You can do it.

Don't give up.

Don't stop.

- [Esther] Oh, this is good.

- Inside the Urban League's downtown offices, Richard Morris also helps to provide solutions to some of the daunting challenges people face every day.

- My name is Richard L. Morris, and I am the housing director for the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

I think that what we are concerned about every day is how we serve the people who are homeless, people who are having difficulty paying their rent - [Narrator] As neighborhoods change and affordable housing becomes harder to find, Urban League resources are more important than ever, especially those dealing with pandemic related difficulties.

- We provide rental assistance for folks who are being evicted, people who are facing housing instability, people who have been engaged in some form of domestic, and or community violence, and individuals who are doing what we call seeking new moves.

- [Narrator] As part of a coalition made up of service providers, government entities, corporations, and more, thousands of area residents have been helped.

(upbeat music) - We've given out collectively over, I think, $32 million in our county.

We're doing maybe a million something every week, and that's 5,000 families thus far.

So that's a bunch.

- [Narrator] One of those partners is the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.

- My name is Castor D. Binion.

I am the executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.

The housing authority manages about 11,000 units.

They're comprised of probably about 25 to 30,000 families or people who we work with every day.

- [Narrator] Built with the community in mind, Cornerstone Village is one of the newest mixed income developments in the East Liberty / Larimer neighborhood.

- So the reason affordable housing's so important that people who grew up in the city of Pittsburgh or people who have low paying jobs, they deserve the same type of housing that everyone else receives.

- This is an opportunity to do something for someone every day.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] Change is inevitable, and for better or worse, Pittsburgh will continue to meet challenges and champions that will help define it for years to come.

- Give people good wages, give people good opportunities, have a city that embraces people, and that brings into the racial dynamics.

Pittsburgh has never been a city where it's a majority of African Americans or people of color.

It doesn't have to be.

It just has to be a place that's fair and equitable.

- [Narrator] And on Grand Street, there will be historic change.

- Our real power is not to change the world, but it's to make a world of change in the people that we encounter every single day.

(crowd applauds) - Mayor Gainey should be a great source of pride for all of us, black, white, young, old, educated, uneducated.

- [Narrator] There will be change at the Urban League, as well, with the addition of a new president and CEO.

- Carlos Carter is a gentleman that will be sitting in this exact seat starting November 10th, 2021.

In my first conversation, it became clear that Carlos understands the mission of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

- So the mission is critical, because it is about empowerment.

People aren't looking for a handout, they're looking to be empowered.

People want an opportunity to live the life that's meaningful to them.

- [Narrator] A meaningful life.

It's what Esther's lived since she first wanted to drive that truck, a life of purpose and grace, that's really just beginning.

- And I don't care how hard you work, how much you accomplish, especially if you're a black person in America, there is still so much that you can do to help the next generation, to help this generation.