African American History Story Archives - Page 2 of 2 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

April 5, 1856: Educator Booker T. Washington Born in Franklin County, VA

Educator Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, on April 5, 1856. After the Civil War, he relocated to Malden, a few miles east of Charleston, where he attended a one-room school for blacks.

He also was tutored by Viola Ruffner, whom he later credited for instilling in him the qualities of cleanliness and hard work.

After graduating from Hampton Institute in Virginia, Washington returned to West Virginia as a teacher. In 1879, he went back to Hampton as a professor. But when school was out, he’d come home to work in West Virginia’s coal mines.

In 1881, he opened a college for African-American teachers in Tuskegee, Alabama. Tuskegee Institute would become one of the country’s finest schools for blacks. And Washington would become the nation’s unofficial spokesman for African-Americans. He was controversial, though, in some circles for urging cooperation among whites and blacks.

Booker T. Washington returned regularly to West Virginia to visit family members and make speeches. He died in Tuskegee in 1915 at age 59. A monument of Washington is located on the state capitol grounds in Charleston.

March 29, 1973: Educator Fannie Cobb Carter Dies in Charleston

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

After the death of her husband, Emory Carter, she was named superintendent of the State Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington. Carter refused to accept the job until state officials removed the bars from the home’s windows.

She became director of adult education for Kanawha County schools in 1935 and retired two years later. But her career was far from over. In 1945, Carter became dean of women at the National Trade and Professional School for Women and Girls in Washington. At age 89, she served as the school’s acting president.

In 1962, Fannie Cobb Carter returned to Charleston, where she lived until her death.

Book Describing Charleston's African-American History Reprinted

A rare book that explores the story of Charleston’s African-American history has been reprinted. The release was announced at an event Monday, hosted by the West Virginia Center for African American Art and Culture.

The book, Black Past, is one of the only published documents exploring Charleston’s African-American history. Copies were hard to find for years. The book includes stories and photographs of African-American owned-businesses, churches and schools from past generations. The book’s co-author, Anna E. Gilmer, 93, says she’s delighted to see her book reprinted, nearly 30 years after it was originally published.

It took more than a decade to obtain permission from the two authors and their families to reprint the book, said Anthony Kinzer, executive director of the West Virginia Center for African-American Art & Culture, the organization responsible for the reprint edition.

“I think a younger generation, and a wider audience, would love to understand who these people were and what they had to endure to accomplish what they did,” he said.

Kinzer said much of Charleston’s African-American community was disrupted by urban renewal in the 1960s and an interstate exit that in the 1970s was constructed right through the heart of where many African-American-owned businesses and schools once existed. Black Past, he says, is a tribute to that history, and to the memory of the rich African-American community that once thrived throughout West Virginia’s capital city.

Black Past is available for sale at Taylor Books and the Capitol Market in Charleston, as well as through the West Virginia Center for African American Art and Culture.

The 23rd Annual African American Heritage Festival Begins in Jefferson County

The 23rd Annual Jefferson County African American Heritage Festival begins Friday, August 14 in Charles Town.

This weekend, the African American Heritage Festival takes over Charles Town, Ranson, and Harpers Ferry and runs until Sunday, August 16.

There will be a Basketball Tournament, Job Fair, and a Youth Block Party on Friday.

Saturday will feature a parade, kid’s activities, historical landmark dedications and live bands.

In Harpers Ferry Sunday, there will be a Memorial Walk to the site of John Brown’s Fort, and the festival comes to a close with a church service at the historical Curtis Freewill Baptist Church built in 1894.

Despite Jim Crow Laws and Segregation, Charleston W.Va.'s Nightclubs Were a Melting Pot

The 1930s, 40s, and 50s in Charleston- before the decline in mining jobs caused many African Americans to leave Kanawha County- those years were electric with music that could be found throughout the city on almost any night of the week. That’s what Hubert “Rabbit” Jones remembers.

Jones made his living as an accountant, but his love was playing improv jazz or the blues with so many of musicians who passed through the capital city. Back then, segregation was still officially law, but in Charleston’s night clubs, blacks and whites would often mingle. Jones played upright bass at many of the nightclubs in town, including many of the white bars, where officially, white people were not supposed to dance to music that was being performed by black musicians.
“And of course sometimes the policemen would stop them and sometimes they wouldn’t. And then following the dances some of the whites wanted to come over to the triangle district for the rest of the night, listening to and dancing to black music.”

Workers outside the Ferguson Theater, 1939.

By “the triangle district”, Jones is referring to The Block, a neighborhood in downtown Charleston that once flourished with many black owned businesses. Today, most of what can be found in The Block is a post office, and an interstate exit. both of which were built right on top of this once vibrant and ethnically diverse community.

The first C.H. James Produce Company was located in downtown Charleston on Summers Street

Thursday evening, Jones will discuss his role in some of that community’s history. His lecture will take place at 6:00 P M in at the Culture Center Archives and History Museum on the Capitol Complex in Charleston.

Music in this story was by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, playing “Just Gone”, courtesy of WFMU.