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Biography Details Life Of Longest Serving Black Teacher At Harpers Ferry's Storer College

In 2017, Lynn Pechuekonis moved into her residence in Harpers Ferry, soon discovering it was the previous home of the longest serving Black teacher at the historical Storer College. Pechuekonis’ curiosity and research led her to create a biography about that teacher, William Saunders.

Reporter Shepherd Snyder spoke to her about the book, titled Man of Sterling Worth: Professor William A. Saunders of Storer College.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Snyder: Starting off, I was wondering if you could introduce yourself and go through the general premise of your book.

Pechuekonis: Hi, my name is Lynn Pechuekonis. I live in Harpers Ferry. And I moved into a beautiful home here and then discovered that it had been the original home of William A. Saunders, who was a professor at Storer College. And as I became more curious about who he was, my research turned into a book about his life from his birth in Louisa County, Virginia to formerly enslaved parents, to his death at age 93.

Snyder: For our listeners who might not know, can you talk about Harpers Ferry and its impact on Black history and culture?

Pechuekonis: Sure thing. So a lot of people think of John Brown when they think of Harpers Ferry and his raid, and it probably had some impacts on the town that he didn’t expect. By the end of the Civil War, there were quite a number of self-liberated African Americans, formerly enslaved people gathered in Harpers Ferry that I’ve seen estimates of 500 to 700 of.

The missionaries from the Free Will Baptist church up in the north had already sent people down here to start working with the formerly enslaved peoples, and Harpers Ferry seemed like an ideal place for a school. The school started out teaching children. And soon it was believed that we needed a normal school, and a school to teach teachers because the need for education was so great among the Black population. So the Baptists up north were able to convince John Storer to donate $10,000 and Storer College was begun. And because of Storer College, an even greater population of African Americans flocked to Harpers Ferry.

The school had a very progressive stance towards encouraging home ownership in the town. And so a number of black residents were able to purchase property and have homes on really good land up in the upper town area where it was not prone to flooding, like in the lower town. And there was quite a thriving Black community here from just after the Civil War until about 100 years after.

Snyder: You mentioned earlier this book is particularly about one professor from Storer, Professor William Saunders. I was wondering if you could go into why you had an interest in him, specifically. Why is he important?

Pechuekonis: Well, what I discovered was that Professor Saunders was the longest serving Black teacher at Storer College. So he was there from 1907. He retired in the 1940s, but continued to be an integral part of the school even after that. The president (of Storer College) called him once “A man of sterling worth and a friend of every righteous cause.” He was known for helping struggling students, he boarded students in his home. And he taught an amazing breadth of classes from math, science, to professional studies in teaching, to sociology, to history of West Virginia and even Bible courses. So it was really hard to earn a degree at Storer College in the 20th century without sitting through at least one class from Professor Saunders. And he also was just an incredible man who served in his community and was a leader throughout the area.

Snyder: Is there anything of interest or any particular anecdotes or stories people should know about Professor Saunders and his life?

One of the things that stood out to me was that he was well known across the state. When (historian and author) AB Caldwell wrote his “History of the American Negro in West Virginia”, Professor Saunders was included in that that work. He was also selected by two West Virginia governors to represent the state at the Negro National Education Congress in 1911 and 1915. He was painted by Black artist William Edward Scott, who was known for his portraits, and he was even included in “The Crisis”, the publication by William E.B. Du Bois for the NAACP. Saunders went to Bates College for his bachelor’s degree program, and even though it was a predominantly white school, he really excelled there and even became a football star during college.

Snyder: What was it like researching material about his life and getting material for this book?

Pechuekonis: So there was a bit of a challenge. Professor Saunders married another Storer College graduate, who was at least 12 years younger than himself. She was a teacher here in Harpers Ferry as well. She taught at the elementary school for Black children here, but they never had any children of their own. So there was nobody to save their photos and their papers, no direct descendants to speak with.

So really, I was left with looking at what’s in the public record and what had been archived at Storer College’s archives, many of which are held by the West Virginia University Library. Some are still held by the (Harpers Ferry National Historical) Park Service, which took over the Storer College property after it closed. And those records are just full of references to Professor Saunders. He was always, you know, leading prayers, teaching classes. Very early in his career here, he was a football coach. He played in the band and he performed in theater productions that the school had. So his name is sprinkled throughout the records all over the place, in Storer College records, and also in newspaper articles. And as I mentioned, AB Caldwell’s history includes a brief biography of him. I also found some interesting information from a biography that his grandniece’s husband wrote in a creative writing class at Storer College.

Snyder: Fast-forward to today, why should people care about Professor Saunders and Storer College? What do you think their legacy is in 2022?

Pechuekonis: I think it’s really important to understand history, understand that Harpers Ferry was not just about John Brown’s raid and the Civil War. There were a lot of really great people who lived here and who were involved with the college who wanted to see people get an equal education here. I know that the alumni of Storer College held it very dear. Often people refer to it as the Storer College bubble. And there was not just the campus, but the whole section of the neighborhood where African American residents felt safe. Even if they didn’t attend the school, young people came to Storer College, and it’s just a beautiful inspiring story that I I find incredibly interesting, I think others do as well.

Storer College’s 155th Anniversary Recognized

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is recognizing the 155th anniversary of the founding of the historic Storer College this weekend.

The college opened in 1867 as one of the first schools in the nation to offer an education to formerly enslaved people. It operated until 1955. To recognize the anniversary, Harpers Ferry is holding a ceremony with the Storer College National Alumni Association.

“If you want to look at a place that tells the story from the Civil War to civil rights, it’s Storer College,” Harpers Ferry National Park representative Leah Taber said. “It was one of the first educational institutions open to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, and certainly the first in West Virginia. So it occupies a huge place in civil rights history.”

Taber said the creation of Storer College represents education as a right for all people, regardless of race or gender.

“As we think about who we are as Americans, one of the things that we cherish as a nation is the right to education,” Taber said. “When we think about how fundamental a right education is, Storer College fits right into that.”

The ceremony is set for Oct. 2 at the campus’ Soldier’s Gate from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Storer College alumni and other notables are set to speak at the event, including:

Storer College National Alumni Association president James Green, Jr.
Tyrone Brandyburg, Superintendent, Harpers Ferry NHP.
Cathy Baldau, Executive Director, Harpers Ferry Park Association.
Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson-Learn, Superintendent, Jefferson County Schools.
Greg Vaughn, Mayor, Corporation of Harpers Ferry.
George Rutherford, President, Jefferson County NAACP.
Lynn Pechuekonis, author of Man of Sterling Worth: Professor William A. Saunders of Storer College.
Emma Dacol, producer/director of documentary Briscoe: Man of Science and Substance, about Storer professor Madison Briscoe.

Included in the ceremony is a ceremonial tolling of bells for Storer alumni who have passed away, with one of the alumni in attendance leading a candle lighting ceremony.

A program about Lockwood House, a former Civil War hospital and headquarters that became the center of the campus, is also scheduled for 3:45 p.m.

Eastern Panhandle Printmaker Highlights Historical Storer College Portraits In Art Exhibit

An Eastern Panhandle artist is displaying an exhibit this month based on photographs of students at Storer College, a historically Black college in Harpers Ferry that was created after the Civil War.

An Eastern Panhandle artist is displaying an exhibit this month based on photographs of students at Storer College, a historically Black college in Harpers Ferry created after the Civil War.

The exhibit displays six linoleum portraits, chosen from the West Virginia University Archives’ Storer College Collection in front of flashy wallpaper patterns.

The exhibit is on display each weekend in September at The Artists Gallery in Frederick, Maryland.

Rhonda Smith created the exhibit. She formerly taught printmaking for 30 years at Shepherd University and worked at the National Park Service in Harpers Ferry.

“It’s a little different than painting or drawing. It’s an indirect process, not a direct one,” Smith said about the printmaking procedure.

She says the placing of the portraits in front of these bold backgrounds represents Black students’ drive to be recognized.

“The education provided these individuals this opportunity to actually stand up and stand out and stand in front of the wallpaper, and be seen and be acknowledged for who they were and what they had achieved,” Smith said.

She also wants to bring light to a story that is not often told, and that not many locals know. Smith says the exhibit is also a way to educate those who visit about Storer College, one of the most prominent Black colleges of the time.

“It might be a way to get a different group of people to be curious, and to wonder a little bit more about that particular history, and then maybe to actually go to Harpers Ferry and Storer,” Smith said. “I think that’s what education is about — allowing people to stumble into and onto things.”

The exhibit is on display each weekend in September at The Artists Gallery in Frederick, Maryland. Shepherd University professor and author Dawne Raines Burke will give a lecture about Storer College at the exhibit on Sep. 18.

Harpers Ferry Looks Back At African American Memorial Day Tradition

After the Civil War, families of fallen Union soldiers recognized Decoration Day by adorning the graves of their loved ones with flowers. That remembrance became what’s now known as Memorial Day and also became a unique holiday for African American tourists visiting West Virginia during the late 19th century.

One of the earliest known observations of Memorial Day in the state began in the 1870s when groups of people would picnic at Island Park, an amusement park outside Harpers Ferry. These annual celebrations carried into the early 20th century and attracted hundreds of African American tourists. Harpers Ferry National Park intern Cassie Chandler is researching the park’s tourist community as part of her studies.

“Island Park was a wonderful place, especially, of course, in the African American community,” Chandler said. “A lot of churches came to Island Park to score a day of fun. They’d picnic. They played games. And how they would get here was through the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.”

In 1878, the B&O Railroad Company bought the park. Railroad companies were some of the largest employers of African Americans after the Civil War, though work conditions were still unfavorable compared to those of their white peers. Harpers Ferry park ranger Melinda Day says the destination became known as a safe public place for African Americans after its development, making it an annual vacation destination for both Black and white employees of the railroad.

African American community members crossing the Island Park bridge from the train station to the amusement park.

“They tended to be very hungry for leisurely destinations that were free from hostility, humiliation and exclusion that tended to mark their experiences at other white public spaces and commemorative sites,” Day said.

Island Park was also close to the historically Black Storer College. The Harpers Ferry school was built in 1867 to help educate the 30,000 African Americans in the region recently freed from enslavement. When school was out of session, the college would rent out the dorms to tourists in the area. This contributed to the notable amount of Black visitors to the island for holidays like Memorial Day.

“When the students broke for the summer, they would go home and those dorms were empty,” Day said. “And then the college started to put together that so many people, both white and Black, were coming here and needed a place to stay.”

Today, Island Park is just a memory. The facilities were wiped out by flooding in the 1920s. But the National Park Service has preserved the park’s only surviving structure, the Harpers Ferry Bandstand. The building is still in use today by community members and musicians.

This Va. Newspaper Has Been 'Making And Recording Black History' For 80 Years

The Roanoke Tribune has been telling its Black readers their lives matter for more than 80 years.

While many newspapers have struggled to adapt to the internet, laying off reporters and editors while shrinking their coverage, the family-owned Roanoke Tribune has persisted through four generations and the destruction of their building during urban renewal.

Roanoke Tribune publisher Claudia Whitworth and longtime staffer Leslie Terry process newspapers in preparation for mailing.

How has it survived? Credit that to the power of family and the personal strength of Claudia Whitworth, the paper’s 92-year-old publisher. On a Wednesday night in March, Whitworth, plus her children, grandchildren and other staff at the paper, gathered to sort, label and mail the roughly 4,500 copies of that week’s paper. The papers arrived from the printer in mid-afternoon, and the group processed them to get them to the post office before it closed. The weekly routine has played out for decades.

Klaudia Shaw, Claudia’s granddaughter, started folding papers when she was five or six years old. Her mother, Eva Shaw-Gill, did too.

“Most kids have chores to wash dishes and make the bed,” said Shaw-Gill. “We had to come to the Tribune.”

Shaw-Gill’s older brother, Stan Hale, started when he was 11. He’s still working at the Tribune today.

Roanoke Tribune publisher Claudia Whitworth places mailing labels on issues of the Roanoke Tribune, in preparation for mailing.

Whitworth started in 1945, when she was just 17 years old, six years after her father, the Rev. F.E. Alexander, founded the Roanoke Tribune as part of a small chain of African American newspapers in 1939. Whitworth spent the early part of her career moving to work on Black newspapers elsewhere, then coming back home. She worked for newspapers in Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, and in New York City. But she never forgot where she came from.

“My intention was always to come back and take care of my own paper, but I just needed experience on more experienced papers,” Whitworth said.

She bought the paper from her father in 1971 and continues to publish today. Her philosophy has always been to shine a positive light on Roanoke’s Black community. As a result, the Tribune has retained a faithful readership, with many people continuing to subscribe by mail even after they moved from Roanoke.

Whitworth said the Roanoke Tribune is “like a letter from home—because we just do the respectful stuff, the things that bring out the best of blackness. The rest, you’ll never read in the Tribune.”

Stan Hale removes boxes of newspapers fresh from the printer in preparation for folding, labeling and mailing.

That focus on positivity has occasionally brought Whitworth into conflict with her peers in the publishing industry. She remembers going to a national conference of Black-owned and operated newspapers several years ago, and getting into a debate with a tabloid publisher from the West Coast.

“Every front page of his paper would have murders, rapes, something,” Whitworth remembered. “I said, ‘Why on earth would you do something like this when that’s what people think of us anyhow?’ And I challenged him in the national conference. He said, ‘Because good news doesn’t sell.’ I said I’m ok, I’m going to prove you wrong. And none of them exist. Every one of them are out of business, and my little, good-news-don’t-sell is still out here and hasn’t missed an issue.”

For the nearly 30 percent of Roanokers who identify as African American, according to the U.S. Census, the Tribune serves as a positive reflection of their community. She’s kept it going even through a time when newspapers around the country are struggling to stay in business.

“She’s a force of nature, is exactly what she is,” said Reginald Shareef, a political science professor at Radford University who grew up in Roanoke. “She’s a larger than life personality. She is a very driven woman. She always has been.”

Whitworth’s intense drive kept the Roanoke Tribune going, even through difficult periods. Beginning in the 1950s, Roanoke city government demolished dozens of neighborhood blocks to make way for a new interstate, civic center, and other redevelopment. Urban renewal also destroyed much of Roanoke’s Black business district—a longtime cultural hub that attracted touring jazz musicians and pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The Roanoke Tribune was among the Black businesses that were destroyed

“They bulldozed the Tribune, and everything, over that night,” Whitworth remembered. “I come there and my stuff is all over the sidewalk and everything. They had bulldozed everything.”

Roanoke Tribune publisher Claudia Whitworth prepares the week’s newspapers for mailing.

Even through all that, Claudia never missed an issue. She had kept photo-setting equipment at home, and so she was able to keep publishing, even after her building was destroyed. The Roanoke Tribune moved to to its current location on Melrose Avenue. The newspaper has adopted new technology over the years, incorporating computers and publishing not only in print but online.

The Roanoke Tribune carries on, even as the novel coronavirus pandemic shut down most of America. But the Tribune is still going. It’s still publishing. It’s survived Jim Crow laws. It survived the destruction of its building during urban renewal. And now it’s surviving the pandemic and the death of print.

The answer to why it has persisted can be found on Wednesday nights, when the staff gathers to process papers and deliver them to their community. This isn’t just a newspaper; it’s a family.

September 9, 1915: Carter Woodson Helps Found Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

On September 9, 1915, historian Carter Woodson helped found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. This group became the cornerstone for the study of black history in the United States

Woodson first came to West Virginia as a 16 year old after leaving his native Virginia to look for work. After a brief stint laying railroad ties in Charleston, he began mining coal in Fayette County. When he was 20, Woodson enrolled in Huntington’s segregated Frederick Douglass High School. He graduated in two years and moved back to Fayette County to teach. In 1900, he succeeded his cousin as principal of Douglass High. He was only 24. Woodson eventually moved on to Harvard University, where, in 1912, he became only the second African-American to earn a doctorate from the prestigious school. His dissertation addressed factors that had led to West Virginia’s statehood.

In 1920, Woodson returned to West Virginia to serve for two years as a dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute—today’s West Virginia State University. Recognized as the “father of black history,” Carter Woodson died in 1950 at age 74.