IMHO blacks in Pittsburgh in the 40’s and 50’s were better off economically than they are today.
There were jobs for them in the mills and the mines. They paid pretty well (despite the fact that UNIONS screened them out from most of the plumb assignments). There were black owned businesses in the Hill District and other places that would later burn. And the levels of violent crime in those communities were nowhere near where they are today.
They sure were.
There were jobs for them in the mills and the mines.
That's a huge part of the problem right there. Let's take a black kid (or any kid, for that matter) who gets out of high school with let's say, a "C" average. Back in the 1950's that kid had a shot at a good full-time job with the railroad, or with one of the many Pittsburgh steel mills. Start as a laborer, learn a trade on the job. The kid might have faced some racism, but he had a shot.
Not today. Such a kid has no future. He could, if he is lucky, cobble together a couple of part-time jobs, jobs with no future. Sure, he could go to college, but to study what? Not everyone is cut out to be a petroleum engineer.
That is not to excuse criminal behavior. but it helps explain it. Trump is right. America needs to bring back those industrial jobs.