THE MAP and ROUTE

A Select History of Radicals and Subversives in and around Downtown

Market Square

While the words of this tour were written years ago, in light of the recent protests in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, while three other cops watched, it seems appropriate that the tour starts here in Market Square to pay respects to the current struggle for Black Lives. The streets surrounding the Square were the site of an uprising that started over the weekend of May 30, 2020, and is ongoing as of writing this. Yet again, anger and frustration at the racism and the slow pace of institutional change has become intolerable and has opened up into a massive resistance in cities across the country. I hope that this tour can help put the current moment into perspective, and will help readers understand that the struggle for freedom, equality and basic human decency has a long and sometimes violent history, and it’s one that we are now a part of. The narrative itself can be manipulated to serve the interests of those in power, and the events right now are no exception, so in the spirit of historian Howard Zinn, it’s important to hear the people’s history as well. Historians of the future will look back at this moment and see that some people chose the side of justice, while others chose the side of oppression or somehow tried to remain neutral. I feel they won’t look kindly on those choosing the latter. Here’s to Justice for George Floyd and an end to police brutality everywhere! #BlackLivesMatter

A number of years ago, I started researching some hidden histories of Pittsburgh. These were mostly stories of labor and civil unrest, radicals, anarchists, and outsiders. The more I dug, the more stories revealed themselves, and they painted a fascinating portrait of an industrial city, ruled by barons, struggling to accept the demands and rights of immigrants, African-Americans, and/or workers. 

I decided to put these stories into a bike tour, limiting myself to the areas surrounding Downtown Pittsburgh. There are so many more stories to tell, but I had to limit the scope to sites that could be accomplished on a short and safe bike ride.

Originally accompanying the tour was a zine, or homemade magazine, assembled with images mostly taken from newspapers and library archives, in the traditional cut and paste style that was popular in the era of the copy machine and just before the home computer was ubiquitous. I’ve scanned the pages of the original zine, and presented them online along with the text to make it easy to read.

The 12-mile tour starts and ends in Market Square, the cultural and literal center of the city, laid out early in its settlement. It is meant to be taken at your own pace, and there is no need to do the tour in order, it just makes for a pleasant bike ride. Some of the places on the tour no longer exist, but being on location allows you to imagine what it was like to live through these tumultuous times.

While you’re in Market Square, be sure to check out the Martin R. Delany Historical Marker, on 3rd St, PPG Place. Delany was an important African-American journalist, abolitionist, physician, and soldier who worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to develop and publish the North Star. The marker says that Delany was a “promoter of African-American nationalism, [and] published a Black newspaper, The Mystery, at an office near here. He attended Harvard Medical School, practiced medicine in Pittsburgh, and was commissioned as a major in the Civil War.

Hope you enjoy a dip into the subversive side of Pittsburgh’s history.

To follow along with the tour, simply click through to the next post, linked below.

Here’s a pdf of the map and a link to ridewithgps where you can download the gpx file.