Charleston

On April 6, 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps established Camp Kanawha at the mouth of Shrewsbury Hollow, about seven miles south of Charleston. Over the next four years, CCC workers transformed the site, which had been heavily mined and timbered, into Kanawha State Forest.

African-American educator Fannie Cobb Carter died on March 29, 1973, six months after her 100th birthday.

She was born in Charleston in 1872, just months before the state’s new constitution prohibited black children and white children from attending school together.

After earning a teaching degree from Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Cobb returned home to teach in Kanawha County’s public schools. In 1908, she organized the teacher-training department at West Virginia Colored Institute, which is now West Virginia State University.

Pioneer Joseph Ruffner died in Charleston on March 23, 1803. Nine years earlier, the Shenandoah Valley native had purchased some 500 acres in Kanawha County from John Dickinson, including lands rich in salt deposits.

By the close of the 18th century, Ruffner had acquired much of present Charleston and had settled on what’s now the town’s East End.

Dr. I. E. Buff died in Charleston on March 14, 1974, at age 65. Buff was the first physician to protest publicly that many coal miners’ deaths were inaccurately being labeled as heart attacks.

He argued that the coronaries were being caused by a widespread disease known commonly as black lung. He suggested that as many as half of West Virginia’s 40,000 miners suffered from black lung.

Author Fanny Kemble Johnson died in Charleston on February 15, 1950, at age 81.

Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1868, she moved to West Virginia in her late 20s and began her writing career. She and her husband, Vincent Costello, moved from Charleston to Wheeling in 1907, and back to Charleston in 1917.

Preacher and historian Shirley Donnelly was born in Jackson County on February 2, 1895. When he was 14, he and his family moved from the village of Rock Castle to Charleston. After attending seminary in Richmond, he became an ordained Baptist minister.

Composer and performer Robert Drasnin was born in Charleston on November 17, 1927. His parents were Eastern European immigrants who met while working at a munitions factory in Nitro, about 15 miles west of Charleston.

When Drasnin was 10, his family moved to California. In high school, he played sax and clarinet in an all-star band that provided music for Hoagy Carmichael’s NBC radio show. He also performed with big band leaders Tommy Dorsey and Les Brown. His 1959 solo release, Voodoo, remains a classic of the “exotica” genre.

The Trump administration announced Thursday it will hold a public hearing in West Virginia on its plan to nullify an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions. The state is economically dependent on coal mining.

The Environmental Protection Agency will take comments on its proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, the state capital, on Nov. 28 and 29.

On this West Virginia Morning, across the country, the tense relationship between African-American communities and police officers has become a focus throughout social and news media spheres.

On the latest episode from West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Us and Them podcast, host Trey Kay reports on an effort to resolve the tension between police and a black community in Charleston, by bringing that tension out into the open.

Basketball star Rod Hundley was born in Charleston on October 26, 1934. He was a sensation at Charleston High School, dazzling opponents with his tricks and talent. His flashy style is rarely seen today, outside of the Harlem Globetrotters.

His repertoire included trick shots, a signature behind-the-back dribble, and spinning the ball on his finger—all during games. His flair on the court earned him the nickname the “clown prince of basketball.” But he’ll always be remembered as “Hot Rod.”

Trey Kay, host of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Us & Them podcast, has been working on a series of reports focusing on Charleston’s West Side. His most recent installment explores a new program that awards grants to Charleston Police officers willing to purchase and rehab dilapidated West Side homes, and live there. On this West Virginia Morning, we hear an excerpt from the podcast episode titled “A Policeman is a Person in Your Neighborhood.”

Federal funding has been awarded to two airport authorities in West Virginia. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin made the announcement Friday.

Over $730,000 will be awarded to the Mingo County Airport Authority in Williamson and to the Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority in Charleston.

On August 11, 1958, the Congress of Racial Equality—or CORE—launched a sit-in movement at several Charleston lunch counters. Prior to this time, African-Americans in Charleston could order takeout food at many white-owned diners but were not allowed to sit down and eat.

In a referendum on August 7, 1877, West Virginia voters chose Charleston to be the permanent state capital. The capital’s location had become a running joke, as government records had been moved from Wheeling to Charleston and then back to Wheeling again, all in 14 years.The capital was on the move so much on West Virginia riverboats, it earned the nickname of “the floating capital.”

On the West Virginia Morning, in 2016, about 15 thousand people were killed by gun violence in the U.S. About 3 thousand teenagers were either injured or killed. In Charleston, West Virginia, there were 11 murders in 2016 -- eight of them occurred on the West Side of town and many of them were teens.

Historian, physician, and businessman John P. Hale died on July 11, 1902, at age 78. The great-grandson of the legendary Mary Draper Ingles, Hale was born in present Virginia before moving to the Kanawha Valley in 1840.

He earned a medical degree but decided that medicine wasn’t as lucrative as the booming salt business. By 1860, his salt works, located between Charleston and Malden, was possibly the largest in North America.