This week, before emancipation, Appalachia provided pathways to freedom for enslaved people trying to escape bondage. A new project identifies more than two dozen previously unknown underground railroad sites. Also, the Fly Around Music & Arts Festival in North Carolina was inspired by the hard work that followed Hurricane Helene. And, a ballad about floods recorded a generation ago still provides solace for people today.
Jeffrey Webb is a West Virginia Studies teacher for eighth graders at DuPont Middle School in Belle. A few years ago he started using free, educational resources on C-SPAN Classroom to support his own classroom lessons.
Middle school West Virginia studies teacher Jeffrey Webb, of Belle, is one of five educators in C-SPAN’s 2025 Teacher Fellowship program.
Courtesy photo.
Now he’s one of five teachers chosen to help create video content, lesson plans, question guides and more for middle and high school teachers across the nation as part of C-SPAN’s 2025 Teacher Fellowship Program.
“The idea is that I’m going to focus mostly on West Virginia and try to find the C-SPAN library clips that deal with our history and our state and our people,” Webb said. “Then I’ll create questions to go along with those clips that then can be shared with teachers all across the country.”
The national congressional broadcast network saw Webb as a perfect fit for the program.
“Jeffrey’s experience in the classroom will help him to develop engaging materials for students to explore through C-SPAN’s programs on the history of his state and the Appalachian region,” said Craig McAndrew, director of Education Relations.
Webb said West Virginia’s history is relevant across the nation, because it overlaps in critical ways.
“We have the Civil War, we have the labor history, we have the environment and all of those are topics that are important to our state but also important to our nation as a whole,” he said.
C-SPAN Classroom already has videos and information on famous West Virginians like Booker T. Washington and Carter G. Woodson. Webb hopes his work this summer will expand that base.
On this West Virginia Morning, not much has been known about Appalachia’s contributions to the Underground Railroad, but a Marshall University historian is documenting that history.
The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is seeking public input for six new monuments to commemorate significant events leading up to the Battle of Blair Mountain took place.
State Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, has written a history of the Northern Panhandle town of Wellsburg by looking at 14 homes in the town and the people who lived in them
On this West Virginia Morning, State Sen. Ryan Weld has written a history of Wellsburg through a unique lens -- he focused on 14 homes in the town and the people who lived in them.
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