The Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team has reached an agreement with a historic Black church to provide it development rights to a 1.5-acre parcel near the church's former property
The Rev. Dale Snyder sits in the pews at Bethel AME Church where he is pastor, in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. Bethel, considered Pittsburgh's oldest Black congregation, lost its previous sanctuary when much of Pittsburgh's historic Lower Hill District was razed in the 1950s, making way for an arena and expressway in an urban renewal project.
But Kevin Acklin, president of business operations for the Penguins, said the team is “recognizing our role here as a steward" of the property and its legacy. The announcement was scheduled for Friday at an outdoor setting on the former arena site, preceded by a worship service, underscoring the role of faith as a motivating and organizing source for Bethel's efforts.
Bethel leaders fought the church’s demolition unsuccessfully, ultimately receiving $240,000 for a property that had been valued at $745,000. The Rev. Dale Snyder, pastor of Bethel, has said that in the racial and political climate of the time, the church had little power to obtain fair compensation. Bethel, meanwhile, now worships further up in the Hill District. Its more modest, modern sanctuary is bathed in the light of stained-glass windows telling stories of the Bible and honoring Methodist stalwarts such as AME pioneer Richard Allen.
“As we learned more about white privilege and all of that reality in our country,” Kusserow said, “it was our responsibility to use that privilege in any possible way to accompany what the AME church was seeking in terms of reparations.”
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