Black History Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

John Brown’s Abolitionist Raid On Harpers Ferry, 165 Years Later

Today, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia is a hotspot for American history buffs. But 165 years before any tourists came to town, fighters here clashed in a prelude to the United States Civil War.

Wednesday, Oct. 16 marked the 165th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, then a part of Virginia. In 1859, Brown — and at least 21 other men including Shields Green and John Henry Kagi — spent months planning an armed rebellion, with the goal of initiating a revolt that would free people enslaved across the South.

Brown and his colleagues descended upon a federal armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry with the goal of distributing weapons to people who were enslaved in Virginia. That night, they overtook bridges to town, occupied weapons facilities and took hostage local slaveholders.

Brown and his colleagues had hoped their raid would serve as a catalyst for a wider rebellion, with more people joining their ranks.

But his plan never came to fruition, as two days later dozens of U.S. marines quashed the revolt. Brown was executed just months later, and the majority of his colleagues were killed in action or also executed.

United States Marines storm an armory fire engine house taken over by John Brown and his team in this illustration from the 1800s.

*Illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper/United States Library of Congress via National Park Service*

The abolitionist raid received national press coverage as contentions over slavery and wider conflict mounted. Today, it is remembered as a precursor to a national war, and one of the first acts of coordinated armed resistance against chattel slavery in the United States.

From this, Harpers Ferry has long held a place in the public consciousness as a site of revolutionary potential, especially for Black Americans.

In 1906, African American civil rights leaders visited the town for the second meeting of the Niagara Movement, an early civil rights group described as a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Harpers Ferry’s abolitionist history, combined with its presence of a higher education institution serving Black Americans, Storer College, led leaders to select the town as the site for their conference.

An illustration from the 1800s depicts John Brown’s execution in present-day Charles Town, West Virginia.

*Illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper/United States Library of Congress via National Park Service*

Today, the legacy of Brown’s raid and the abolitionist movement in Harpers Ferry is remembered through historical events hosted by the National Park Service (NPS) at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

In the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20, the United States Marine Corps Historical Company will partner with NPS to host “living-history” exhibits, talks and demonstrations regarding Marine involvement in the conflict.

The park will also host a tour called “Clearing the Sky” on Oct. 18, Oct. 25 and Dec. 2.

The program will visit sites of importance to Brown’s raid and trial, including the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town and the Jefferson County Museum, where artifacts from Brown’s life are held. The tour lasts roughly two-and-a-half hours.

For more details on NPS programming to commemorate the 165th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, visit the organization’s website.

Theater Production Brings Story Of AIDS Epidemic’s Impact On Black Americans To Eastern Panhandle

Donja R. Love’s “What Will Happen To All That Beauty” is showing in Shepherdstown throughout July as part of the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival.

In 2019, Black Americans accounted for more than 41 percent of AIDS cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Donja R. Love, a playwright based in New York, says he rarely sees that reality reflected in the arts. More often, retellings of the AIDS epidemic forgo discussions of race entirely.

“I didn’t see myself reflected in the works. These works often hold space for white, cis queer affluent men. That’s not my story, and that’s not the story of so many folks who I know,” Love said. “So I wanted to do, as a dramatist, my part to say ‘I see you. I see me. I see us.’”

For Love, that meant writing his latest theater piece, “What Will Happen to All That Beauty?” — a multigenerational story about how the AIDS epidemic impacted a Black family in the 1980s.

Love’s production is showing throughout July at the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University, an annual event that has brought together artists from across the country since 1991.

But Love doesn’t refer to the work as a play.

“I call it an offering. And I call it an offering because I think it’s so important to note that historically, throughout theater and just society, people of color, specifically Black folks, have been left out of the conversation around HIV and AIDS,” he said. “So this is a way for me to offer representation, to offer softness, grace, beauty and love to a community that for so long may not have felt that.”

House Management Intern Savana Petranoff scans an attendee’s entry ticket for a production at the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

This theme of compassion being denied to Black people living with HIV comes up throughout Love’s piece. But the story also shows how Black LGBTQ people still created spaces for community and compassion, often through one another.

Coming from New York, Love says putting a production on in West Virginia seemed daunting. He wasn’t sure what his reception would be like as a Black LGBTQ creative visiting the Mountain State.

But he’s found that people have been welcoming, and that audiences have been receptive to his work even when they might not personally relate to its content.

“The folks who may see themselves most reflected in the work may not be the ones most reflected in the audience,” Love said.

But Love says that means the piece, for many, can offer a moment of learning.

“Hey, now I know this thing. Now I know what’s happening. What can I do with the access that I have, with the resources that I have?” he said.

Folks involved with organizing the festival say the type of learning Love talks about is something they consciously want to bring to West Virginia.

The annual Contemporary American Theater Festival is held at the Marinoff Theater, located at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“As one of the major cultural institutions in West Virginia, it is our duty and our responsibility to serve the community here,” said Peggy McKowen, the festival’s artistic director.

For her, serving the community partially means bringing high-quality productions to the state, and encouraging community members to show up with initiatives like recurring discounted rates for West Virginia residents. But it also means something a little deeper.

“Our responsibility to do that is what enables us to provide the opportunity for this kind of art, which is really asking the audience to participate, to be involved in, to really think about, to profoundly receive and feel something,” she said.

Like Love, McKowen said conversations that begin in theater can translate to real-life learning and change. Associate artistic director Theresa H. Davis says the festival’s influence extends even beyond the Eastern Panhandle.

“We have people that come from all over the country. Last year, I met a couple that said they heard about us [and] drove all the way from Florida to see the shows,” Davis said. “We are very proud to be able to produce work that brings together a community of festival friends from all over.”

Love, McKowen and Davis emphasize that getting the festival up and running is a team effort, requiring the support of production staff, actors and even audience members themselves.

In addition to Love’s piece, there’s a slate of four other plays running through the end of our month. To learn more or purchase a ticket to these performances, visit the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s website at catf.org.

Harpers Ferry, Bolivar Residents Unite To Restore Black Baptist Church

A local history preservation group is working to rehabilitate the battered First Zion Baptist Church, a historic Black church in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Harpers Ferry is a hotspot for Black history in West Virginia. The town was home to an 1859 abolitionist uprising, a 1905 conference on Black civil rights and a historically Black college that operated for nearly a century.

For many residents, a first step toward preserving Harpers Ferry’s Black history is rehabilitating and preserving sites of historic significance.

When community members noticed a traditionally Black Baptist church in town fall into disrepair, they rallied behind an effort to restore the building to its former glory.

Now, a local preservation nonprofit called the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation has secured a $100,000 grant to rehabilitate the church.

Reporter Jack Walker spoke with the organization’s incoming chair Lynn Pechuekonis about where the project is today, and the future of First Zion Baptist Church.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

First Zion Baptist Church has been worn down by the elements and pests, according to Lynn Pechuekonis, incoming chair of the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Walker: To begin, could you tell me what First Zion Baptist Church is, and why it’s important to Harpers Ferry history?

Pechuekonis: Harpers Ferry harbored a very vibrant Black community between 1870 and 1970, partially because of Storer College. That brought education to Black families here. It also helped with job training. It also engendered a summer resort industry, which ended up nurturing the Hill Top Hotel, which was a Black-run hotel from 1890 to 1926. It was Black-owned. So there was a large population, comparatively, of Black people in Harpers Ferry — Black families who could own homes. They were encouraged to own homes here. And so they wanted to worship here as well. There were actually altogether four African American churches in Harpers Ferry at one time. Two of those were on West Ridge Street, and First Zion Church was built in 1894 by some of the very early Black families who came to live in our town.

Walker: I know that you and some other local community members have rallied around First Zion Baptist Church and preserving the historic building for future generations. How did that project come to be?

Pechuekonis: So, several years ago, some folks in town, both in Bolivar and Harpers Ferry, were concerned about the fact that we had two former African American churches actually on the same street, just about within three lots of each other, that had been abandoned, and were just really deteriorating quickly. And so it was part of the foundation’s mission to preserve and beautify our communities. So they chose the building that was in better shape between the two, and also one that was on the market to be sold. We were able to buy First Zion Baptist Church, and we’ve been working slowly ever since then, trying to raise money and making improvements and protecting the church where we can ever since.

The Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation is currently soliciting community feedback on what type of establishment to convert the battered First Zion Baptist Church into.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Walker: As this project progresses, what vision do you have for the future of the church? What function will it serve for the local community?

Pechuekonis: We’re actually holding a community charrette on May 15 to get some ideas from the community about what they feel they need, because we want this to truly be a Harpers Ferry and Bolivar community center. We have some ideas, but we want to hear what the community has to say. We would like to have some kind of display honoring the Black community that lived here, and especially the history of that church. We also see it as a community or cultural center, to provide programming, to provide community space for events that the community wants to have. We are limited by the town of Harpers Ferry because it’s in a residential neighborhood to having it as a community center or religious institution. So we don’t have a lot of freedom to do other things with it. So that’s kind of why we’re going down that avenue, but we want to shape it in a way that the community most feels the need.

Walker: Obviously this is a long-term project, but do you have a sense of how long it will take to complete the church’s rehabilitation?

Pechuekonis: I think it’s a few years out, just because it’s going to involve so much — so many resources financially. The $100,000 that’s going to help us work on the exterior is just a drop in the bucket compared to what will need to be done to the interior to make it safe and also fit modern standards for a facility that the community can best use. So I think it’s maybe at least three to five years out. That’s just a wild guess.

First Zion Baptist Church, a historic Black church in Harpers Ferry, has become run down over the years. Community members hope to change that.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Walker: And now that the project is underway, what are your hopes for what it can bring to the local community?

Pechuekonis: One of the things that we’re hoping is that, as a secular community center, the foundation can bring together residents from both the towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar to help build a more cohesive community from the fellowship and shared experiences people have in this space.

On May 15, the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation will host a community charette to receive public input on the First Zion Baptist Church rehabilitation project. For more information on the event, visit the foundation’s website.

Residents interested in providing feedback on the project can do so through an online survey operated by the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation.

Harpers Ferry’s Ties To Civil Rights Movement Showcased In New Documentary

Harpers Ferry was home to the second-ever meeting of a civil rights group that gave way to the NAACP. A new documentary in part highlights the town’s connection to the movement.

The historical importance of Harpers Ferry becomes clear on any drive across the town’s cobblestone roads. Museums, Victorian homes and storefronts shelved with old-time goods line each of the town’s winding streets.

Many West Virginians know Harpers Ferry as a hub of Civil War history, serving as the site of an 1859 abolitionist uprising led by John Brown and Shields Green.

But fewer people know that the town also played a seminal role in the 20th century civil rights movement. Now, a new documentary, which can be viewed for free on PBS Passport, aims to raise awareness of an often overlooked piece of American history with direct ties to West Virginia.

Origins Of A Black-led Civil Rights Group

In 1905, a group of Black civil rights leaders came together to form the Niagara Movement. Historians describe the group as a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The group was founded by Black Americans in Canada, just outside of Niagara Falls. It aimed to address racial injustice in the aftermath of the Civil War, advocating against things like sharecropping, racial segregation and pervasive anti-Black violence across the United States.

For its time, the Niagara Movement was viewed as radical. It was run exclusively by Black civil rights leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter.

Curtis Freewill Baptist Church, one of the meeting places of members of the Niagara Movement, is located on Storer College Place in Harpers Ferry.

*Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Plus, it offered a countercurrent to accommodationist perspectives on racial justice, which encouraged Black Americans to temporarily accept segregation, better their communities and one day push for increased civil rights.

This revolutionary mindset is what drew the group to Harpers Ferry in just its second year. Beyond its ties to abolitionist uprising, the West Virginia town was home to Storer College, a historic Black college open to discussions on racial liberation.

“They felt safe to come to a Black college,” said Scot Faulkner, who co-founded a local organization called the Friends of Harpers Ferry National Park. Faulkner’s group serves as a liaison between current town residents and the national historic park.

“They saw a link between themselves as a force, basically an aggressive force on behalf of African American rights,” he said. “They felt common ground and common philosophy with John Brown and the more radical abolitionists going back into the 1850s.”

While visiting parts of the town, Faulkner said the group’s leaders even took off their shoes because they felt that they were walking on “sacred ground.”

Faulkner said that Harpers Ferry provided a stepping stone for early civil rights leaders addressing racial injustice at the turn of the twentieth century. But not everyone who visits the town is aware of this history, which can be overshadowed by the town’s Civil War ties.

Located in downtown Harpers Ferry, the Storer College Museum contains several displays on the history of Black education, as well as the Niagara Movement’s meeting in West Virginia.

*Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Shining A Light On The Niagara Movement

A new documentary titled “The Niagara Movement: the Early Battle for Civil Rights” released through Buffalo Toronto Public Media earlier this month tells the story of the Niagara Movement, from how it was founded to how it gave way to the NAACP.

Raymond Smock is a historian who serves as director emeritus of Shepherd University’s Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. He also previously served as historian of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Smock contributed to the documentary, and hosted a screening of it on Shepherd’s campus earlier this month.

While the film doesn’t center on Harpers Ferry alone, Smock said it shows that the West Virginia town facilitated early civil rights discussions.

“This was an amazing meeting at a very historic spot where John Brown’s raid, some say, started the Civil War,” he said. “There was a great interest in holding this meeting.”

Still, Smock said that the Niagara Movement does not always get sufficient attention in contemporary historical discussions.

An exhibit on the Niagara Movement, an early civil rights organization, is located inside the Storer College Museum in Harpers Ferry.

*Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“In the immediate vicinity, if you’re in Jefferson County, West Virginia, the Harpers Ferry meeting of the Niagara Movement is pretty well-known history,” Smock said. “But it’s not well known in most other parts of the state or the nation.”

Both Faulkner and Smock said that they hope the documentary helps people learn more about the Niagara Movement and civil rights history.

Much of this history can be discovered right in West Virginia, at historic Harpers Ferry sites like the Storer College campus and the Storer College Museum. The multi-level museum has exhibits dedicated to Black history, from the Niagara Movement and beyond.

For Faulkner, the ability to discover these pieces of American history on a simple walk through town is what makes Harpers Ferry great.

Harpers Ferry “was the philosophical and emotional link between the Niagara Movement in the 20th century and the abolitionist movement, especially the more forceful aspects of the abolitionist movement, of the 19th century,” he said.

“It was a really important melding of these two threads in American history, and certainly of the African American rights movement,” Faulkner said.

WVPB To Host GOSPEL Preview And Panel Discussion

WVPB invites you to learn more about a new docuseries, GOSPEL. The series explores the rich history of Black spirituality through sermon and song and delves into its extraordinary impact on culture and pop music.

Join Us Thursday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. at the Davis Fine Arts Center on the West Virginia State University Campus

WVPB invites you to learn more about a new docuseries, GOSPEL, from Executive Producer, host, writer Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The series explores the rich history of Black spirituality through sermon and song and delves into its extraordinary impact on culture and pop music.

The preview will be followed by a brief panel discussion and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.

WHAT: Screening of Docuseries Preview, GOSPEL

WHERE: Davis Fine Arts Center, West Virginia State University Campus, Institute, WV

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Learn more about this event.

Celebrating A Tradition Of Poets And Discussing The Resurgence Of Black Lung, Inside Appalachia

This week on Inside Appalachia, Rev. George Mills Dickerson of Tazewell, Virginia was born in the years after slavery ended. He’s remembered today through his poetry. And a new wave of black lung disease is ravaging Appalachia. We’ll hear more from a black lung town hall in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Coal miners have their own thoughts about black lung, too.

This week, Rev. George Mills Dickerson of Tazewell, Virginia was born in the years after slavery ended. He’s remembered today through his poetry.

And a new wave of black lung disease is ravaging Appalachia. We’ll hear more from a black lung town hall in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Coal miners have their own thoughts about black lung, too.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Celebrating Poetry About 20th Century African American Life
The Voices Of Black Lung Miners
Black Lung Town Hall Meeting In Kentucky

Celebrating Poetry About 20th Century African American Life

Poetry has been a tradition in Jeanette Wilson’s family for generations. They’ve recited the poems of Wilson’s grandfather and her uncle George for nearly a century. Now, these poems about African American life in southwest Virginia are reaching a wider audience — and connecting the past to the present.

Folkways Reporter Connie Kitts brings us this story.

The Voices Of Black Lung Miners

For years, it looked like black lung disease was on the decline, but a new epidemic has emerged. In 2018, NPR and the PBS program Frontline investigated a resurgence of advanced black lung among coal miners across Appalachia. They found that despite mounting evidence and a stream of warnings, federal regulators and mining companies failed to protect workers.

The result was that thousands of miners were afflicted with an advanced stage of black lung disease — known as Progressive Massive Fibrosis.

We bring this story from the miners themselves, as told to NPR’s Howard Berkes and Ohio Valley ReSource reporter Benny Becker. It was originally broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered on Jan. 22, 2019. The full documentary Coal’s Deadly Dust is available on pbs.org.

Black Lung Town Hall Meeting In Kentucky

In July, the Appalachian Citizens Law Center hosted a black lung town hall in Whitesburg, Kentucky. The nonprofit law firm invited miners and their families to hear from experts about the current state of black lung disease in Appalachia. One of those experts is Kentucky radiologist James Brandon Crum, who first alerted federal researchers to what they later labeled an epidemic of complicated black lung.

WMMT in Whitesburg recorded the meeting for its program Mountain Talk. What Dr. Crum has to say is eye-opening — especially if you’re not part of the coal mining community.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Jeff Ellis, Charlie McCoy, Southern Culture on the Skids, June Carter Cash, and Tim and Dave Bing

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.