Thirty years ago, Ed Gainey graduated from Morgan State University with a degree in business management and returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Gainey attended Morgan State while the school resisted a University of Maryland takeover. This act of resistance led Morgan to remain a historically Black university independent of the University System of Maryland.
Today, Gainey is the first Black mayor to serve the city of Pittsburgh — something the mayor credits to his experiences as a student at Morgan. — and seeks re-election this November. According to Gainey’s campaign website, the act also inspired him to pursue a political career.
“It really opened my mind up to learn what it meant to be a Black man, what it meant to be a student, what it meant to know your history,” said Gainey. “For me, I call it the mother of my education not just by book, but by knowledge.”
Gainey became Pittsburgh’s mayor in 2022 and during this election, he said he aims to reamplify and sustain his commitment to the city of Pittsburgh.
“Growing up, I didn’t know any politicians. I never had a politician down in my neighborhood. I never had a knock on my door. I never had anyone show up at my school,” Gainey said. “I didn’t get into politics until I got to Morgan State University.”
Gainey was born and raised in Pittsburgh to a single, teenage mother, who raised him alongside his grandmother. As a child, his family moved to a neighborhood where they were second Black family to live on the street before they later moved to East Liberty — where Gainey attended Peabody High School and graduated class of 1988.
“My first day of class, my professor was really telling us that we needed to be with our classmates because at the time they were trying to defund a historical black college and university, Morgan State,” Gainey said.
In March 1990, students at Morgan State University led an nearly month-long protest, demanding improvements to infested dormitories, sufficient financial aid packages, improved campus security and more. The protest led to 200 students sleeping in Truth Hall for a week and over 1,200 students participating in shutting down the campus completely.
“You know, some colleges you just go get a degree, right? But at Morgan State, I had a sense of belonging,” Gainey said. “It made me understand what college life was all about.”
Gainey marched alongside his classmates to Baltimore City Hall and went to Annapolis, Maryland, with his class in hopes of speaking with the governor.
During this journey, Gainey said he met then Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke — who was the first African American to serve as Baltimore’s mayor.
“I watched how to use political power to make sure that Morgan State stayed a funded HBCU,” said Gainey. “… Just to see the manifestation of what [we did] in that day, to how Morgan has blossomed through the years — It is a tribute to everybody that came before me and everybody that came after me.”
Gainey began his community service career at the non-profit organization East Liberty Development, Inc.
According to Gainey, the organization didn’t have much money due to its reopening. Nonetheless, he wanted to learn about community development and offered to work for free if Wheeler Winstead, the organization’ s interim director, taught him about community development.
“I wanted to be a student of community development,” said Gainey. “I was just getting the politics of that. You get the wisdom that it takes to understand what it means to be a political leader. I didn’t know[then] I would be the mayor.”
Gainey shadowed multiple political and business leaders early in his career before running for any office. His first run to become a state representative was in 2004 — but didn’t make it onto the ballot due to insufficient paperwork. His second run in 2006 was closely contested but he lost by 93 votes. Upon his third attempt in 2012, Gainey won his election more than 63% of the vote, defeating opponent Joe Preston.
“I was well suited, better positioned because I have met people that actually wanted me to win. That wasn’t inside the system before,” said Gainey. “I was fighting the system and I fought the system my whole life.”
Gainey served in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives for eight years and recalled multiple conversations about him becoming the city’s first Black mayor.
“The reality is that this city never had a Black mayor and black people only make up 23% of the city of Pittsburgh. We don’t have no middle class Black neighborhoods,” said Gainey. “Every neighborhood that looks like us [lives] in poverty …”
According to Gainey, previous Black mayoral candidates had only garnered about 25% of the vote during their elections. Despite the improbable odds, Gainey ran for the office and in November 2021, he was elected.
Gainey became the first African American mayor of Pittsburgh and was the first mayor to beat an incumbent since 1933.
Since his inauguration, Gainey has overseen the city through a bridge’s collapse, a 30% decrease of homicides in the city and reduced youth homicide in their neighborhoods. His goal is to make Pittsburgh “the safest city in America.”
“We want to make sure that the city is thriving. That whoever comes today is welcome. That you can see your culture in our city and want to make this your own,” said Gainey. “We want to build more affordable housing so the city remains affordable and [so] people have an opportunity to live in the city and enjoy all the amenities of the city.”
Early in person voting where voters can request a mail-in or absentee ballot will be available until Oct. 29. Voting polls on election day will be open from 7 a.m and close at 8 p.m.
