Tag: Civil Rights

Ex-West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleckley, 77, Dies

Franklin D. Cleckley, the West Virginia Supreme Court’s first black justice, has died at age 77, the court announced Tuesday.

The court said in a news release that Cleckley died at his Morgantown home on Monday. No cause of death was given.

A civil rights attorney, Cleckley was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court in 1994 by then-Gov. Gaston Caperton. He spent 27 months on the court and decided not to run for election.

Born in Huntington, Cleckley earned an undergraduate degree at Anderson (Indiana) College and a law degree from Indiana University. He joined the West Virginia University law school faculty in 1969 and returned in 1996 after leaving the Supreme Court.

Cleckley wrote more than 100 majority opinions during his time on the court.

Current Justice Robin Davis was elected in 1996 to fill Cleckley’s seat and was invited by Cleckley to work alongside him in the six weeks afterward.

“He was an honorable and decent man who loved the law and loved the state of West Virginia,” Davis said. “I will miss him deeply.”

In 1990, Cleckley established a nonprofit group to give educational and employment opportunities to former convicts. Two years later a lecture series in his name was established at WVU featuring members of the civil rights and African-American communities.

“His belief in the basic principle that justice is a fundamental right for all people was manifested in his life, his teaching, his writings, and the significant body of judicial work he created in only two years on the court,” Justice Margaret Workman said. “His work will benefit generations of West Virginians.”

The court said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

W.Va. Court Affirms Civil Rights Violation Dismissal

The West Virginia Supreme Court has upheld dismissal of felony civil rights charges against a former Marshall University football player accused in a 2015 attack on two men he saw kissing.

The justices voted 3-2 Tuesday to send the case of Steward Butler back to Cabell County Circuit Court for further disposition.

Circuit Judge Paul Farrell ruled last year that Butler could not be charged with a hate crime because it appeared that state lawmakers intended to leave protections based on sexual orientation out of the law.

The Supreme Court ruled that state code clearly defines sex as male or female, does not address sexual orientation and that lawmakers have rejected attempts to include sexual orientation since the law was enacted three decades ago.

NAACP Says Bills Could Negatively Affect Minorities

On Civil Rights Day at the Capitol, Local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the HOPE Community Development Corporation met to persuade lawmakers to advance legislation that benefits the minority community.

Specifically, the groups are concerned about the fate of Senate Bill 649. It would create a Minority Economic Development Advisory Team to address the economic problems facing underserved minority populations in West Virginia.

The bill remains in the Senate Government Organization Committee after being introduced last week and is facing a final deadline for passage by Wednesday, the last day for Senators to approve bills that originated in their chamber.

The groups were also seeking to halt the passage of three bills, House Bill 4240, relating to the Uniform Controlled Substance Act, House Bill 4576, which would increase penalties for transporting controlled substances, and House Bill 4578, which would create a criminal offense of conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Reverend Matthew J. Watts with the NAACP, says while he understands the intentions of these bills, the end result will be higher incarceration rates for minorities.

“These three bills are not only going to cause a growth in our prison population, drain money away from education, job training and substance-abuse programs, and just fill up our prisons that are already overcrowded,” Watts said. “These three bills that are closely connected together and there kind of going under the radar. Nobody is paying much attention to those bills. The NAACP is trying to bring those bills to light so people will pay attention.”

All three bills are on second reading in the House today and up for a vote Tuesday.

Court Won't Answer Hate-Crime Question in Ex-Player's Case

The West Virginia Supreme Court has chosen not to rule on whether a former Marshall University football player accused of assaulting two gay men after he saw them kissing on a city street can be charged with a hate crime.

The Herald-Dispatch reports the order was issued Feb. 9 in Steward Butler’s case.

Butler has pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony civil rights violations and two counts of misdemeanor battery stemming from the alleged April incident.

In December, the court was asked to decide whether state code protects an individual’s civil rights if the crime is based solely upon the victim’s sexual orientation.

Prosecutors contend the violation is based on the victim’s sex, not sexual orientation.

Cabell County prosecutor Sean Hammers says the charges will remain unchanged.

Take Your Students on an Electronic Field Trip

In cooperation with the Alabama Public Television's IQ learning network, students are able to join in to see first hand the sixth episode of Project C:…

In cooperation with the Alabama Public Television’s IQ learning network, students are able to join in to see first hand the sixth episode of Project C: Lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. In this episode of the Electronic Field Trip, student reporters lead viewers on a journey through Montgomery, visiting the Rosa Parks Museum and other historic sites pivotal to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Interviews with historians, archivists, and those close to the boycott will provide an in-depth understanding of this 13-month event and its profound influence on the nation. Students will also examine methods of communication used within the movement and during the boycott.

About Project C

Project C: Lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement is a series of electronic field trips occurring throughout the Civil Rights fiftieth anniversary years of 2013-2015 that focus on the role of citizenship in a democracy through the study of historical events.  This is a seven part series that can be accessed at any time through the website. http://www.aptiq.org/IQLEARNING/ElectronicFieldTrips/series.asp?seriesid=3

Target Audience: 7th – 12th Grade

Poet Nikki Giovanni Says W.Va. Should Be Celebrated

Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni  loves several things about Appalachia: its defense of freedom, and how the people here know when enough is enough in regards to material wealth.

Giovanni was the Writer-in-Residence for Shepherd University’s 2015 Appalachian Heritage Festival.

Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943, but spent most of her early years in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1958, she moved back to Knoxville, where she lived with her grandparents.

She would later go on to receive her undergraduate degree from Fisk University in Nashville and attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

While growing up, Giovanni experienced segregation and became active in the Civil Rights Movement, which influenced much of her work.

Today, Giovanni lives in Virginia and is a professor at Virginia Tech.

Shepherd University’s Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence is sponsored by the West Virginia Humanities Council and Shepherd’s Appalachian Studies Program.

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