The history of the Pittsburgh Courier, a newspaper by, for and about the African-American community, is the fascinating subject of a new documentary produced by Kenneth Love that premiered Feb. 1. "Newspaper of Record: Pittsburgh Courier 1907-1965" was presented by the University of Pittsburgh Office of Public Affairs to celebrate K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month. The evening was hosted by chancellor Mark Nordenberg (who was unable to attend) and vice chancellor Robert Hill, who read Mr. Nordenberg's remarks before delivering his own.

More than 600 guests crowded into the Twentieth Century Club, where they were met by Courier "newsboys" hawking the latest edition (the program printed to look like a vintage newspaper) and Carmon Rinehart posing as the great Courier photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris. A dinner reception preceded the film, with a who's who of black Pittsburgh in attendance.

A few former Courier employees still living, including Robert Lavelle, Eric Springer, Ida Grant and George Barbour, were featured in the film, which traces the Courier's rise to a national paper with 14 editions. Mr. Love was able to film a great many more before their demise, including legendary editor Frank Bolden (whose widow, Nancy, was present). The inspirational film documents the paper's advocacy and leadership on behalf of so many important issues through the decades, from lynching and civil rights to its successful efforts to get the Red Cross to accept blood from African-Americans.

Applauding the film were funders such as Doreen Boyce, former head of the Buhl Foundation, who green-lighted the project, current Buhl president Fred Thieman, the NAACP's Gayle Moss, Sala Udin, Yvonne Cook, historian Andrew Bunie, Glenn and Andrea Mahone, Marva Harris, BJ and Jeff Leber, Lynn Cullen, Evan Frazier, the film's executive producer Dr. Barbara McNulty-Love, narrator Vernell Lillie and present Courier management Rod Doss and Stephan Broadus.

Mackenzie Carpenter's video program, "Omnivore," is available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.