But while the change is good for the city’s energy and bottom line, it can be disconcerting. Ever since the ‘30s, customers have been able to walk into the Texas Tavern and order “two and a bowl with.” If you’re not familiar with the tavern’s lingo, that translates to, “two hamburgers and a bowl of chile beans with onions.” The Texas Tavern recently celebrated its 91st birthday and looks well on the way to its centennial.
Mason Adams/WVPB
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Danny Fralin makes chili dogs during a recent weekday lunch shift at the Texas Tavern in Roanoke, Virginia. Fralin has been a cook at the restaurant for 37 years.
The diner’s secret can be found amid the lunch hour, as church bells just up the street ring in the noon hour on a Tuesday in downtown Roanoke. Spring is showing, so despite the pandemic, people are out and about. And the Texas Tavern is seeing a brisk movement by customers.
”How’s the elevator business?” third-generation owner Matt Bulington asks a regular.
“Up and down, buddy!” replies the operator in a rehearsed joke that still cracks up the cooks.
The banter here is just part of the appeal. The diner is tiny — 10 seats, and right now they’re all blocked off with yellow caution tape — but its crisp red and white paint and the unmistakable smell of its grill practically dominate the larger buildings around it.
Saunders, for example, started coming here back in the ’70s but still usually orders the same thing.
“It’s either two with, a bowl and a drink,” Saunders said, indicating a preference for burgers and a bowl of chili beans with onions, plus a soda. “Or a Cheesy Western, a bowl and a drink.”
For Saunders, the lack of change provides much of the appeal. The Texas Tavern’s small menu offers up blue-collar classics like chili dogs, small hamburgers, and the Cheesy Western – a hamburger with a scrambled egg and the tavern’s signature relish. Regulars tend to be passionate about their favorites.
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The menu at the Texas Tavern hasn’t changed much since it originally opened in 1930, and that’s the way customers like it.
“Two hot dogs and a chili beans.”
“Cheeseburger.’
“The Cheesy Western! No. 1, Texas Tavern!”
The price is right, too. The Cheesy Western is one of the most expensive item on the menu — $2.85. Owner Bullington’s great-grandfather started this joint. “My great grandfather, Nick Bullington, had been an advance man for the Ringling Brothers circus and the Gentry Dog and Pony Show, and had his own railroad car,” Matt Bullington said. “He traveled all over the country.”
It wasn’t long before he discovered the chile recipe in Texas. And then soon after, he discovered White Castle, an emerging chain restaurant that sold small hamburgers — the first fast food. Bullington decided to make a go of it and opened The Texas Tavern in Roanoke in 1930. The Great Depression was taking hold, but the Norfolk and Western Railway had its headquarters there, which gave him a built-in customer base.
“Times were hard, but it was a really fast-growing city with good economic potential,” Matt Bullington said.
Roanoke has changed dramatically since then. Railroad jobs are mostly gone. Downtown has completely transformed, from office buildings to rental apartments for a new, younger set. Texas Tavern’s competition used to be other diners. Now it sits alongside upscale international cuisine and craft breweries.
That was before the pandemic hit. COVID-19 has turned downtown into what Bullington calls “a ghost town.” It’s pushed the tavern into take-out only, at least for now. And the tavern’s customers are craving constancy.
“It’s kind of one of those places people like to come back to, as everything else changes,” Bullington said. “The food stays the same. You walk in and it looks like it did in 1950, or 1970, or 1990.”
Since he took over in 2005, Bullington has added sausage gravy to the menu, and replaced an old cigarette vending machine with a vintage Coke cooler — and that’s about it. That’s the way regulars like it.
So while Roanoke is seeing new growth and an evolving economy, the Texas Tavern is chugging toward its 100th birthday in 2030, doing what it’s always done: selling inexpensive comfort food in a setting that looks pretty much the same as when it opened. In doing so, it’s become a foundational piece of Roanoke culture and cuisine — a link to the past that gives comfort in the present.
“Somebody that didn’t understand the business might think, oh, he should modernize this and open up and create more seats because we only have 10 stools, which — you’d be losing something,” Bullington said. “You’d be missing something.”
The COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out but there’s no obvious fix for other long term medical consequences of the pandemic.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the deadliest year ever for overdose deaths in the twelve months between June 2019 and June 2020. Lethal overdoses were up by 20%. Isolation, anxiety and boredom, three triggers for drug abuse, have created the so-called mental health ‘shadow pandemic.’
And for West Virginia, an existing shortage of healthcare professionals means there are not enough workers for hospitals, clinics and treatment centers that are seeing more patients in distress.
In this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay visits a Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program at Cabin Creek Health Systems in Charleston, WV to speak with doctors, nurses and patients about what it takes to stay drug free in the Age of COVID-19. He also speaks with Christina Mullins, Commissioner of the Bureau for Behavioral Health in West Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
The digital revolution has created new outlets for long-form journalism, music and storytelling as print publications close down. One example is the website WestVirginiaVille.com.
Douglas Imbrogno created the site to feature West Virginia creatives. Later today, he is going to premiere a new music video by Mountain Stage bandleader Ron Sowell called “Be The Change.”
Imbrogno and Sowell spoke with Eric Douglas about the project and the song debut.
Douglas: Explain to me what WestVirginiaVille is.
Imbrogno: WestVirginiaVille is a multimedia magazine that is able to do everything from regular print feature stories to short documentaries, music, videos, photo essays. It’s really a multimedia magazine on the web.
Douglas: So why did you create WestVirginiaVille in the first place? What need are you filling?
Imbrogno: One of the first things that goes when newspapers contract and shrink and their staffs are decimated, is feature writing, long-form feature stories of the interesting people that make up a place where people live. And that’s a great loss. There is a need for stories about the way that life is lived on a daily basis; why it’s worth living in West Virginia; why people stick it out in a place with some seriously benighted politics at times.
Douglas: So rather than a print magazine, you have all the advantages of moving imagery and sound on top of everything else, plus no printing costs.
Imbrogno: I hope eventually to spin off special edition print publications because that’s where I came from, growing up reading everything from the New York Review of Books to Esquire. That’s why I wanted to become a writer. But we’re also able to do things like short documentaries and we just bought a drone. So we’re doing a lot of really cool drone photography in West Virginia. It’s really amazing because we’re seeing images and views of West Virginia that I’ve never seen and I think most people have never seen.
Douglas: You’ve got a new video coming out. Tell me why this was an important direction to go for WestVirginiaVille.
Imbrogno: Ron came to us with this song called “Be The Change” and I just am in love with this song. I’ve probably heard this song 40 times and I still love it. WestVirginiaVille exists to demonstrate that world class work can be created with these new digital tools in a place like West Virginia.
Douglas: Ron, tell me about the song.
Courtesy WestVirginiaVille
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Ron Sowell sings in a scene from the music video Be The Change.
Sowell: This song came to me out of the political turmoil of last year, and it was an inspiration about “what can I do as a person to change the world or change my little corner of the world?” I felt compelled to interject this into the national conversation.
Douglas: What do you want people to take away from the song?
Sowell: Ideally, I want them to reconsider how they relate to other people. That they would consider not judging people and be more accepting and to listen to each other.
Douglas: Is there a particular lyric? Any favorite lyric in the song that kind of summarizes it?
Sowell: It starts off with “fighting in the street, shouting on the screen, who can be heard, when everybody screams.” And the chorus is, “Be the change that you dream of, Be the change that you desire. Be the healing water, the tames the raging fire. When the hurt and hate divide us. It is the love that will unite us. Be the love. Be the change.”
Jett Morton is pretty good at installing new shelves for his growing collection.
Between the “Typewriter Room” in his parents’ basement and the four large metal shelving units in the living room of his Morgantown home, his collection of antique typewriters take up a lot of space.
“I was at over 300 machines,” Morton said. “I had lost counts between 300 and 350.”
Driven by nostalgia, typewriters have gained a surge of popularity in recent years. Before typewriters were cool (again), there was an existing worldwide community of people like Morton who collect, repair and use typewriters.
For him, this hobby started at the age of seven when his parents would take him to yard sales and flea markets.
Morton already had an interest in regular computers. At a yard sale, he saw something that looked like a computer: a typewriter.
“I didn’t know where the monitor was,” Morton said. “I didn’t know what it was. So my dad showed me. He got it for me. I typed on it, thought it was neat.”
Duncan Slade
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WVPB
Morton types on an Oliver typewriter
After this first typewriter, he went to visit a family friend in Morgantown who owns over 800 typewriters.
“He gave me the first typewriter that he got when he first started collecting,” Morton said. “That’s what really fueled me to start getting more antique machines.”
Morton’s parents had a spare basement room that became the typewriter room. It was wall to wall with typewriters pressed up against each other.
“I had several rare Olivers and I liked the design,” Morton said, “I thought ‘Well let’s see how many Olivers I can get.’”
He sold off some of his other machines and the number of Olivers is up to 54. He says it’s likely the largest Oliver collection in the world with some of the rarest machines.
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Reverend Thomas Oliver (photo now owned by great-grandson Lester Oliver).
Thomas Oliver, the founder of the Oliver Typewriter Co., was Canadian by birth. As a Midwest pastor in the late 19th century, he wanted an easier way to write his sermons.
He designed one of the first “visible print” typewriters.
“Before the Oliver, when you type on the keys, the tight bars used to swing up from underneath to hit the platen,” Morton said as he showed the Oliver’s mechanism. “You couldn’t see as you type until you were done.”
The preacher’s original design was patented in 1891 and became the Oliver One.
Over a million Oliver machines were manufactured in Chicago, up until the Great Depression when the company was sold to investors in England.
British Oliver produced typewriters until the company closed in 1959.
The design was also licensed around the world under names like Courier in Austria and Stolzenburg in Germany.
In Argentina, the Oliver name was already trademarked. So they called it Revilo (That’s Oliver spelled backwards).
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WVPB
Morton shows Oliver Typewriter memorabilia.
Morton’s favorite machine is a special edition Woodstock Oliver typewriter. It’s over 130 years old and named for the factory location in Woodstock, Illinois.
This rare version of the Woodstock was made exclusively for department store Montgomery Ward.
“They only made 19 of them,” Morton said. “There was an advertisement in the Montgomery Ward catalog of 1898 that had this machine.”
For years, Morton said, collectors have seen this advertisement but not the actual typewriter.
“They made only 19. I mean, that’s not going to be around. And one day a Woodstock showed up on eBay.”
Morton bought it.
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WVPB
Morton’s Woodstock Typewriter
He gets a lot of machines on eBay or other online forums these days. His eye looks for rare stuff like the original Oliver One model, a German model known as Jacoby, and a few Italian portable models.
“I probably have a list of a couple dozen Olivers with this and that I don’t have,” Morton said. “It really just depends what shows up for sale.”
Morton said over the past few years the worldwide typewriter community has rapidly expanded online.
In 2016, a documentary called “California Typewriter” starring Tom Hanks, an avid typewriter collector himself, attracted new attention for the typewriter community. Morton even had a cameo in the film.
“The main thing, I think that is my fascination with them is that they are perfect devices,” Hanks said to the PBS NewsHour in 2017. “They do one thing and only one thing. You can’t make a phone call on a typewriter and you can’t pull up today’s New York Times.”
Hanks owns hundreds of typewriters, wrote a book about typewriters and types on them a lot. Morton doesn’t type on his machines; it’s all about collecting the Olivers.
Still, they’re both members of the same worldwide community of typewriter collectors.
“The community is what makes typewriter collecting what it is today,” said Morton.” I mean, it’s about the machines, but it’s more about the people and the history of the collecting and meeting the people that you meet.”
Weijia Jiang was born in China but immigrated to Buckhannon in Upshur County when she was a child. Today, she is the White House Correspondent for CBS News in Washington, D.C.
She is currently writing a book titled “Other” about her life growing up in West Virginia and her professional life since then.
Eric Douglas spoke with her by Zoom from the White House Press Room.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: Let’s talk about how you came to West Virginia. I know you were born in China, but moved here when you were two. How did that all come about?
Jiang: I was born in China and then my dad was applying to graduate schools in the U.S. And he got a scholarship at WVU. So he brought our family there, and we never left, because I think he just fell in love with the landscape and the beauty of West Virginia. So we settled down there, and that’s where I grew up and graduated from high school.
Douglas: Your beginnings in journalism started pretty early. In middle school I believe.
Jiang: We had a video production class in middle school, and I was really interested in it. I think my middle school teacher saw potential, so she helped me nurture that passion and turn it into something more. And then, at the time, a company called Channel One News out of Los Angeles, produced newscasts for middle school and high schoolers. And it was distributed throughout the country.
Every year, they had an annual competition that you could apply for, to be a student producer of the show, and I won, to be an anchor and a reporter. And so they flew me out to LA for two weeks. And it was really a life changing experience. Because after I saw what journalism was about in practice, I knew that it was something I wanted to pursue, even at age 13.
Douglas: Your undergraduate degree isn’t in journalism. You didn’t pursue that when you got out of high school.
Jiang: Right, I went to William and Mary, it’s a liberal arts school in Virginia, I applied to several different schools and ended up getting a full scholarship there. And so it was just a no brainer. And even though they didn’t have a journalism or communications program, I was just really interested in a liberal arts education, which I think is really helpful if you’re really going to be a journalist.
For me, the top quality of a journalist is someone who’s really curious and curious about learning. So even though I didn’t formally study journalism, I think everything that I learned, especially with my major being philosophy, I use that every day when I write and tell stories.
Douglas: Tell me about life growing up in Upshur County for you.
Jiang: Well, it was a mixed bag. I mean, Upshur County is so beautiful. And I think there’s a foundation there of an appreciation of art. Our main street was filled with antique shops that had art as a showcase. There is a college there as well. So, it was diverse in that sense because it drew people from everywhere to go to school there. But Upshur County is pretty rural. When you’re a kid, anything that makes you different, and makes you stand out, can be a challenge and I think that’s why, as a kid, you strive to just sort of fit in whatever way you can. And that was hard for me because I stuck out like a sore thumb.
I think it took awhile for people to understand our differences. And, ultimately, I think I overcame a lot of challenges just by throwing myself into extracurricular activities, and really excelling at school. So I felt like if I could just show myself and do things like win a national competition in journalism, or win a Golden Horseshoe, it showed that I was invested in the community, and I think, ultimately gained acceptance and had a lot of fun growing up there.
I wouldn’t trade it for anything, even if it was hard sometimes, because I felt like I was able to be a real kid, I played outside every day, I got dirty, literally playing in the mud, riding four-wheelers. I think that that sort of upbringing really allows you to develop that part of you as a kid. It’s important just to learn what it’s like to have fun outdoors. And West Virginia has so much to offer when it comes to that, that I really enjoyed growing up there.
Douglas: The new book, “Other,” is scheduled to come out next spring. As I understand it, the idea is the times in your life or your career that you have felt like an other. Were there times growing up in Upshur County that you felt like an other, like an outsider?
Jiang: I think the entire time, because even though you learn how to adapt, and you become part of different friend groups and the community in some ways, just being so different from everyone else, I always felt that. And I mean, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There were definitely times in my life throughout my childhood and growing up in West Virginia, where the other kids made sure that I felt different, and told me to go back to where I came from, and asked me if I could see because my eyes were so small. And I think that stems from a lack of education about different cultures. And also kids can be bullies. And unfortunately, that’s true no matter where you are in the world.
Douglas: I’m assuming that “Other” is not just about West Virginia, though. It’s your career as a woman, as an Asian American. Is that an accurate statement?
Jiang: I think that’s accurate, because no matter whether I was in West Virginia, I felt like I wasn’t American enough because I wrongly associated being American with being white since everyone around me was white. And they were telling me to go back to my home country. And then in China, you know, I’m the foreign relative who married a white guy and then, in a newsroom, I often replaced somebody who looked like me. So there were times where I was the only person of color in a newsroom, and even covering the White House. There were times where I felt isolated, because there weren’t many Asian American reporters who covered President Trump on a daily basis, and I was the only Chinese American reporter who did that regularly. And so that paired with what was happening with the pandemic, and the rhetoric surrounding the virus just sort of brought to light.
The fact that even though I left West Virginia, even though I’m no longer a child, a lot of the same issues that I faced are still here, whether I’m an adult or a child. So I think that’s where the title came from. And now that I’m watching members of the Asian American community under attack from coast to coast. I think a lot of people also feel like they are an other in their own country, because they’re being singled out and blamed for something that is not their fault. And so even though they are Americans, they’re being judged and attacked because of the way they look. And so I think that’s where the otherness factor comes into play, and, unfortunately, has led to where we are right now.
Douglas: I want to talk about some of the violence against Asian Americans. Where do you think that’s coming from?
Jiang: It’s definitely coming from misinformation and a lack of education. I think that the rhetoric around the virus, calling it the China Virus, or the Wuhan Flu, immediately links the virus to a place. And while it did come from there, it’s spread across the world. And the virus does not discriminate. It attacks everybody, no matter what color or gender or where you come from. And so I think people, wrongly, immediately associate the virus with China and Chinese people. But the problem is it’s Asian Americans from all backgrounds that are getting attacked. And it’s just because they look vaguely Asian, that people are saying terrible things about how they are to blame for the pandemic.
So I really think it’s a lack of education. A lot of these people are Asian Americans who have never even been to China. And so to somehow place blame on that, for a virus that has made its way around the globe, is irrational. I think people are angry that their lives have been turned upside down. And I get that. I’ve talked to so many people about that. But we can’t place the blame. Instead, I think in order to be productive and move forward, you have to understand the science behind the virus, and how it spreads and what you can do to protect you and your family.
Douglas: I remember this time last year several stories came out that nobody was going to Chinese restaurants out of some bizarrely misplaced fear. There’s a basic reaction or a gut reaction to some things, you don’t understand it. So you react in fear.
Jiang: Right. A lot of these restaurants had to shut down and to be clear, restaurants all over the place, no matter what kind of food they served, have had to shut down because of the pandemic. But I do think that there’s an extra layer attached to Chinese restaurants and Asian restaurants for the same reason, which is a lack of understanding and really a discrimination against an entire community, just because the way they look.
Douglas: You gained some national and international attention because of some of the interactions you had with President Trump in the White House. What was that experience like for you, when when the president of the United States is saying some things to you that were covertly racist, if not overtly racist?
Jiang: As a journalist, you have to always have your purpose, and the reason why you are doing what you do, in your mind at all times. And so I’m constantly thinking about the fact that we’re in a deadly pandemic, and people need answers, they need the truth about what the administration is doing. So that’s what I really focused on and tried to allow that to drive me and not allow the distractions to get in the way.
Because a lot of times, I think, when President Trump wanted to change the narrative and change the headline, he would self-create a distraction, whether it’s on Twitter, or whether it was in person. This story is the most important story I’ll probably ever cover in my life, because it is a matter of life and death. And the information that you’re bringing to people helps them make decisions that can frankly, save a life. So feeling the weight of the coverage, I really just try to get into that, and not take anything personally, whether it is a questionable statement or not.
Douglas: It was a distraction, trying to take you off of the job you were trying to do.
Jiang: Or take away from the real story, which was a response to the pandemic, that was not enough, that was not good enough at the time, because there was not enough testing. At the time, there weren’t vaccines. You know, the President was sending mixed messages about mitigation factors about whether to wear masks. So he was really in the hot seat every day getting grilled by not only me, but all of my colleagues about why the response was still leading to so many cases and so many deaths. And so I think in order to distract from that, it wasn’t just with me, but he created opportunities to change the narrative.
Douglas: What’s the situation like in the briefing room now?
Jiang: I think a lot hasn’t changed. I mean, if you watch the briefings, you’ll see me and my colleagues asking tough questions, and pressing the press secretary about what they’re doing to make sure people have what they need to get out of this pandemic. I don’t know if people tune in to the White House briefings every day, like they used to because the president used to hold them and now President Biden does not do that. But if they did, I think they would see a lot of the same things, which is just journalists doing the job that we’ve been doing for decades and decades, trying to find answers and hold those in power accountable.
Douglas: What was what prompted you to actually write the book to focus on that aspect of your life?
Jiang: Well, exactly what we’ve been talking about this call, which is that I realized it wasn’t just to me. In this moment, a lot of Americans are feeling like an other in their own country. And so I thought my personal story could help people gain understanding about that otherness and about the misconceptions people have. I just wanted to share my story with the hope that it sparks conversation and helps other people who are going through something similar during this really historic time in our country.
I just want to say one more thing. Anytime I talk about, or talk to anyone from West Virginia is that I think, in some ways West Virginians feel like the other in this country sometimes because they are misunderstood, too. And there are stereotypes linked to West Virginia, and there is misinformation linked to West Virginia. And so even though it is a small state, it is incredibly mighty with people who have the biggest heart who really helped foster my growth and gave me the chances to reach my potential in middle school and in high school. And so I think being something other than is not just about race, it’s about socio-economic dynamics, it’s about opportunities. It’s about funding in states that are sorely lacking in some areas. I mean, my parents still don’t have broadband. And so I think the more we can do to try to understand each other, just as humans and as fellow Americans, the closer we can get to finding unity, and really celebrating everything that this country is.
Douglas: I actually had that same thought about West Virginians as other when I first saw the title of your book. In some ways, you’re an other twice. You’re another here. But when you identify this from being from West Virginia, you probably also get that eyebrow raised or some wisecrack about West Virginia.
Jiang: Exactly. I think people assume that when I’m talking about that, they automatically mean it’s because I’m a Chinese American and I look different. That’s true, but it’s also because I’m a West Virginian. And it’s not only internationally, but some people in the U.S. don’t realize that I’m not talking about the state of Virginia. I’m talking about West Virginia. And it is unfair to judge any state and the people that come from there when you might not have ever been there or understood the communities. So I think that you’re right. I have these two perspectives that hopefully someone can take something away from my story when I share it.
The book is due out from Simon and Schuster in the spring of 2022. This story is part of a series of interviews with authors from, or writing about, Appalachia.
COVID-19 numbers show the pandemic has hit Black and Brown people hard. The coronavirus is about three times more likely to put African-American and Latino people in the hospital and they are twice as likely than whites to die from COVID. The reasons for this disparity are as old as they are complex. Inequities in health care are rooted in the historical racism of our institutions. They are part of the reason some people of color don’t trust public health efforts or the healthcare industry in general.
In this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay speaks with Black West Virginians fighting to keep their community healthy during the pandemic.
In March 2020, days before any ‘stay at home’ orders and before we used the term ‘super spreader event’, Romelia Hodges attended a packed church celebration in Marion County. Two weeks later several of Hodges’ friends were ill from the coronavirus and some died, including 88-year-old Viola Horton, West Virginia’s first COVID-19 death.
For decades Rev. Matthew Watts has warned about health disparities between Black West Virginians and white residents. He says it’s been hard to get people to listen and even harder to encourage action. Watts believes COVID-19 can be a catalyst for systemic change so that everyone is well served during the pandemic and once it’s behind us.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
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Friendship Baptist Church in Everetville, WV, where a 30 percent of its members tested positive for COVID-19 after a large celebration in March 2020. Five people, who attended that event, died of the virus, including 88-year-old Viola Horton, West Virginia’s first COVID-19 casualty.
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Romelia Hodges attended the celebration at Friendship Baptist Church in March 2020 before the CDC had advised against public gatherings of fifty or more people. Afterwards, many who attended became ill and presented COVID-19 symptoms. Hodges took action and set up contact tracing for the people who attended.
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Rev. Matthew J. Watts, senior pastor at Grace Bible Church in Charleston, WV.
Doctors and pharmacists from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department fill syringes with the Pfizer vaccine to go into the arms of Rand, WV residents in February 2021. The event was held specifically to reach out to Black West Virginians, who are at heightened risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19.
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Rev. Matthew J. Watts receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic held by the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center in January 2021.
Julie Blackwood
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Us & Them host Trey Kay interviewing people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at the North Charleston Recreation Center in February 2021.
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A healthcare provider from Kanawha-Charleston Health Department injects an African-American woman at the Rand Community Center in Rand, WV in February 2021. This clinic was one of a series events targeted to minority West Virginians.
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Us & Them host Trey Kay interviewing Rev. James Patterson, president of the Partnership of African American Churches (PAAC), at a vaccination clinic at the North Charleston Recreation Center in February 2021. This event was the first-ever minority-focused vaccination event in West Virginia.
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Us & Them host Trey Kay met up with his childhood basketball hero Mike Jones at the North Charleston Recreation Center in February 2021. Jones says he chose to get the COVID-19 vaccination because he wanted to protect his 81-year-old mother. He brought is mother in for her shot later that afternoon.
