Allegheny Co. Executive To Honor Homestead Grays, Negro Leagues

HOMESTEAD, PA — Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Negro leagues by rededicating the Homestead Grays Bridge on Sunday. The span is named after the Negro League team that played in Homestead and Pittsburgh from 1912 to 1950.

The event, delayed a year due to the coronavirus outbreak, will also highlight 22 new bridge banners that honor the former Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball players and owners. He will be joined by officials as well as family and friends of the teams’ players and owners.

Following a brief program, Fitzgerald will unveil a new bridge plaque and showcase a Grays state historical marker that was relocated this week next to the bridge. The event will be held in a parking lot at The Waterfront underneath the span.

The bridge was dedicated in 2002, and small metal signs honoring the players and owners of both teams were erected in 2011. The signs had faded over time and were removed in 2019 in anticipation of this event so that new banners could be designed and erected.