part to advances during the Civil Rights Movement, because as white publications included more African-American news, circulation steadily fell.Glasco, p. 93. Also, the paper struggled without the financial expertise of the late Ira Lewis. P.L. Prattis, a career journalist, rose from city editor in 1936, to managing editor in 1948, to executive editor of the Pittsburgh Courier in 1956. In 1947, Prattis was unanimously granted membership in the US Senate and House press galleries by the executive committee of the Periodical Correspondents Association. That year he was the first African-American journalist permitted to enter the United States Congress via the Periodical Press Galleries of the United States Congress. He remained executive editor until 1965. In 1965, Prattis retired from the Courier after John H. Sengstacke purchased the ailing paper. Some prominent contributors to the Courier were Joel Augustus Rogers, who worked as a journalist for the Courier in the 1920s, and Sam Milai, editorial cartoonist for the Courier for 33 years. The Courier was the first to spot the talent of a young William Gardner Smith, who was hired by the Courier while still in high school. This was in 1943, some years before he gained attention as an expatriate novelist and journalist living in France. Trezzvant Anderson covered the early years of the civil rights movement for the paper. Courier comic strips The Pittsburgh Courier published comic strips, even syndicating some to other black newspapers. The first strip of note was Sunny Boy Sam, originally by Wilbert Holloway, which launched in 1928 and continued past the demise of the Courier. The Courier also published Your History, written by Joel Augustus Rogers and originally illustrated by George L. Lee. Patterned after the look of Robert Ripleys popular Believe It or Not cartoons, multiple vignettes in each cartoon episode recounted short items about African Americans from Rogers' research. Your History ran from November 10, 1934, to July 31, 1937. It returned in November 1940, illustrated by long-time Courier editorial cartoonist Sam Milai. In 1962 the strip was retitled Facts About The Negro, continuing for the rest of the Couriers run. Jackie Ormes' Torchy, which ran in the Courier from May 1, 1937, to April 30, 1938, was the first syndicated strip by a black woman. Other notable strips published in the Courier included Jay Jackson's As Others See Us and Jackie Ormes' Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger (1945–1956). From August 1950 to August