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History of the Pittsburgh Musicians'
Union Local No. 471
The Pittsburgh African American Musicians' Association was incorporated
as a non-profit organization in Allegheny County, Court of Common Pleas
1906. In 1908, the American Federation of Labor granted Black musicians
in Pittsburgh a charter to form Local 471 of the American Federation of
Musicians (AFM), also known as the Musicians Protective Union. In 1965,
as a result of the new ALF-CIO desegregation policy, Local 471 was
merged with AFM Local 60 to form AFM Local 60-471, also known as the
Pittsburgh Musical Society and then later as the Pittsburgh Musicians
Union.
Local 471 was located in a club on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District of
Pittsburgh. The club had offices on the first floor, with a piano bar
and rehearsal space on the second floor. The club was a popular
gathering place for musicians, both local and national, offering a
congenial atmosphere for rehearsing and jamming. The organization was a
powerful force in the development of community in the city's African
American neighborhoods and the securing of economic and educational
opportunities for local musicians and bands. Union members played in
theaters, clubs, restaurants, ice follies, vaudeville acts, touring
companies, churches and concert halls throughout Pittsburgh, the
continental U.S., Western Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
When the Civic Arena was built in the mid-1950s, much of the lower Hill
District of Pittsburgh was torn down, including the musicians' club,
forcing the union to move temporarily to a storefront on Centre Avenue
in East Liberty. More permanently the union found space in a former bar
on the corner of Enterprise and Frankstown Avenues, also in East
Liberty. Due to financial difficulties in the late fifties, the local
moved yet again, this time to a bar owned by Joe Westray, then president
of the local. They remained at this location until 1965.
The presidents of Local 471 were elected by the members for a two year
term, with no limit to the number of terms a president could serve.
Records of the names of earlier presidents have been lost. The earliest
known president was Hence "Prez" Jackson from the early
thirties to the mid-forties at which point Stoney Gloster served until
1954. In 1954 Carl Arter served until 1958 when Joe Westray became
president and filled that office until the merge deposed him in 1965.
He
became one of the three representatives from 471 to serve on the board
of the merged local, along with Carl Arter and Rubye Younge Hardy.
The merge was prompted by the American Federation of Musicians
integration policy of that time. Pittsburgh could no longer operate two
locals, separated on the basis of race. The merger appears to have cost
the African American union members much of their autonomy. Leadership
positions remained for the most part in the hands of the white
musicians. Many of 471's membership cards and records were also lost
with the merger costing a great number of the members' benefits from
their seniority in the union. It was at this point many African American
musicians cancelled their membership in the union, which meant that they
could no longer play music professionally in Pittsburgh.
---Matt Eidson |
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UE/Labor 98:4 finding aid by clicking here and searching for "98:4"
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