Pittsburgh in the classroom: Pitt professors visit landmarks, debate local history
by Matt Maielli / Senior Staff Writer
Professor Laurence Glasco doesn’t advise his students to shy away from history’s dark side. In fact, he encourages exploring the moments a high school textbook might’ve left out.
The students in Glasco’s History of Black Pittsburgh class gathered around the Stephen Foster memorial sculpture outside the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh last Wednesday night.
The statue depicts the famous playwright and Pittsburgh native sitting down, sheet of paper in hand, with a smiling slave playing banjo at his feet. The scene references Foster’s work composing minstrel music, which accompanied shows featuring white actors in blackface.
In a discussion continued from their last meeting, the students debated over whether the sculpture is too offensive to remain standing.
Glasco thought the statue should remain, repeating a quote from William Faulkner: “‘The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past.’ It’s there, around us.”
