Hometown profile: Growing up black in Youngstown | News, Sports, Jobs
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on November 1, 2022
WARREN — As a child going to the Paramount Theater on West Federal Street in downtown Youngstown during the 1950s, Helen Youngblood never thought much about the racial undertones as she and her friends always were seated at the upper level of the theater.
“I didn’t think of Youngstown being racist back then. It never hit me that I was sitting up there because I was black,” Youngblood, now of Warren, said.
The term commonly attached to this practice is the “peanut gallery,” referring to sitting black people in theaters in the upper . . .
