On this West Virginia Morning, tourists from around the world visit Harpers Ferry each year to immerse themselves in U.S. history. But the number of visitors fell in 2020, as public health restrictions ramped up nationwide. Jack Walker visited the town to learn how things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
On this West Virginia Morning, tourists from around the world visit Harpers Ferry each year to immerse themselves in U.S. history. But the number of visitors fell in 2020, as public health restrictions ramped up nationwide. Jack Walker visited the town to learn how things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Also, in this show, some of the divides in our nation are defined by where we get our information. As social media sites gain a larger audience, some traditional news organizations find themselves losing out and going out of business.
In a new episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay finds the media landscape has changed, and fewer newspapers and radio and television stations are doing daily reporting. A study from Northwestern University shows 200 counties in the U.S. now have no source of local news.
Kay talks with Steve Waldman, a longtime journalist who is now trying to save local journalism. Co-founder of Report for America, Waldman says the industry has imploded after watching its business model turned inside out. We listen to an excerpt from the latest Us & Them episode, “Another Small Town Paper Down.”
And to hear the rest of the episode, tune in Thursday, March 28 at 8 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting or on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. for an encore. You can also listen on your own time, right here.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
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.
On this West Virginia Morning, a group of Black civil rights leaders in 1905 came together to form the Niagara Movement. Historians describe the group as a precursor to the NAACP. The group was founded in Ontario, Canada. But soon it forged ties with historic Harpers Ferry.
On this West Virginia Morning, a group of Black civil rights leaders in 1905 came together to form the Niagara Movement. Historians describe the group as a precursor to the NAACP. The group was founded in Ontario, Canada. But soon it forged ties with historic Harpers Ferry. Now, a new documentary on aims to highlight the movement’s origins and trajectory. Plus, it’s shedding a light on lesser-known pieces of West Virginia history. Jack Walker has the story.
Also, in this show, for our reporter roundtable in last Friday’s episode of The Legislature Today, Chris Schulz spoke with our primary legislative reporters — Randy Yohe and Briana Heaney — to discuss some of the things we’ve been reporting on this week.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Eric Douglas is our news director and producer.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The peak months at the Gorge are June, July and August, with more than 200,000 visitors each month. Park attendance dips below 100,000 in the winter months.
With 325 million visitors last year, park attendance nationwide was higher than any year since 2020 but still not more than 2019’s 327 million.
The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park also set a record for recent years with 427,000 visitors, up from 300,000 in 2019.
The Gauley River National Recreation Area also saw a record 187,000 visitors last year, up from 119,000 in 2019.
Portions of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park are in West Virginia. The park drew nearly 4.5 million visitors last year. In 2021, nearly 5 million people visited the park.
Gov. Jim Justice gave updates Wednesday on two major highway projects in different parts of the state.
Gov. Jim Justice gave updates Wednesday on two major highway projects in different parts of the state.
The structural steel for the new Interstate 64 Nitro-St. Albans bridge is almost complete.
Jason Foster, chief engineer of development at the West Virginia Department of Highways, said 2 million tons of steel would be lifted in place on Wednesday.
Next he said, concrete would be poured and asphalt laid to have the new bridge ready for traffic by next spring or summer. Another span opened last year.
“We’re just really excited about this project and the opportunity to have it completed and open to traffic,” Foster said.
In the Eastern Panhandle, U.S. 340 around Harpers Ferry will be closed for 90 days starting on Sept. 12. Contractors will work to stabilize rock formations in the area to improve safety.
“We will have the road reopened by Christmas for the region’s shopping season,” Foster said.
Foster said the Appalachian Trail would remain open through the area.
Visitors and spending increased after the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve gained national park status.
In late 2020, the New River Gorge became the newest unit of the National Park Service. Last year, and in 2021, national park visitor spending in the state topped $100 million for the first time.
Park visitation increased to 1.6 million in 2021 and 2022, up from 1 million in 2020 and 1.2 million in 2018 and 2019.
The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park also registered an uptick in the past two years: 400,000 visitors last year, and 300,000 in 2021.
More visitors came to New River last year and in 2021 than went to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, which charges an entrance fee.
