One hundred years ago, a group of African-American men from Western Pennsylvania needed some regular camaraderie. Hailing from Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Beaver Falls, Homestead, Wilkinsburg, Clairton and beyond, they were in a distinct minority at home and wanted to build a social network of their own. They chipped in a dime each as a show of good faith to form a new society -- the FROGS, an acronym for Friendly Rivalry Often Generates Success. Its purpose, simply put, was to have fun. (The rivalry of the title was internal, mostly over who had the prettiest girlfriends.) The women were called the Ducks. Many prominent members of the black community have belonged: Cumberland Posey Jr., owner of the Homestead Grays baseball team; Robert Lavelle, founder of Dwelling House Savings & Loan in the Hill District; Robert L. Vann, who built the Pittsburgh Courier into a newspaper of national importance; lawyers Henry Smith and Warren Watson, who would become Allegheny County judges; Dwight White of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The early FROGS met in each others homes and held social events at the high-class venues of black society, mostly in the Hill District -- the Loendi Club, the Hurricane, the Belmont Hotel (owned by gambler-financier Gus Greenlee and Teddy Horne, father of Lena), the Crawford Grill, Grenada Theater and the Savoy Ballroom
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 02:06:44 +0000
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