HBCU Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Leaders Break Ground On Agricultural Lab

West Virginia State University has been the only land grant institution in the nation without an agriculture school. However, due to a new law that is about to change.

The 2024 Legislature passed a bill that would allocate $50 million to West Virginia State University to build an agriculture school. Gov. Jim Justice ceremonially signed the bill in May.

On Tuesday, city and state officials broke ground on a new facility that will house a laboratory space for both WVSU and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

A Segregated and Underfunded History

The University is one of two Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the state. The other is Bluefield State College.

Last year, the Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. Jim Justice, addressing an “ongoing underinvestment in West Virginia State University” compared to the state’s other, predominantly white, land-grant university — West Virginia University.

WVSU President Ericke Cage said the groundbreaking brought on mixed emotions, although he said he felt a great deal of pride.

“With today’s groundbreaking,” Cage said, “we take steps to fully fulfill our mission as a land grant institution and to do away with the dubious distinction of not having an agricultural school.”

West Virginia State University is an 1890 Land Grant Institution. Such Institutions were founded under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, a federal mandate that states either consider Black students equal or create separate land-grant schools for them.

Recent Steps Towards Increasing Investment in WVSU

Cage said this investment is a step forward for the university.

“Today, we plant our flag in the sand and we say that we at West Virginia State University are going to establish a School of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and this facility will serve as a cornerstone of that vision, of that goal,” Cage said.

In the 2023 legislative session, the legislature passed a bill that funded the university by an extra million-plus dollars to help maximize federal matching programs.

In Justice’s final State of the State address in January, he proposed the new Agriculture Lab at West Virginia State University. Now, with that proposal realized, he says this funding will help take the school to greatness — again.

“We’ve pulled the rope together, from the legislature to the Agriculture Commissioner to all of us at this great school,” Justice said. “We’ve made some real goodness happen in West Virginia right now, and we’ll reap the benefits forever and ever and ever and ever.”

‘I Think It Spoke To Him’: Why James Earl Jones Sought Role In ‘Matewan’

Curtis Tate spoke to David Wohl, who at the time was an acting teacher at West Virginia State and asked Jones to come speak to his students.

Renowned actor James Earl Jones died earlier this month at age 93. Jones was part of the cast of the 1987 John Sayles film “Matewan,” which was shot in Thurmond, West Virginia.

Curtis Tate spoke to David Wohl, who at the time was an acting teacher at West Virginia State and asked Jones to come speak to his students.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tate: Why did James Earl Jones come to West Virginia to be in Matewan?

Wohl: I think he chose the film because it was just an interesting acting choice for him. And I mean, Sayles was really lucky to get him at that point. But when you think about it, he had done the voice of (Darth) Vader in ‘Star Wars.’ He worked steadily, but he wasn’t a movie star.

His main work was in theater, in ensemble work especially. And he still continued to act on Broadway and in smaller plays. The first time I saw him was in a tiny play off Broadway. And then I saw him in ‘The Great White Hope,’ which was the show that won him the Tony Award for Best Actor when he was fairly young. This would have been the ’60s, I think, and so he’s not the star, like a Brad Pitt. He was in a lot of independent films, and he wasn’t a leading man at that point. He was an ensemble player, a character actor, and he knew that. So he chose projects that he thought were meaningful to him, and that’s one of the things I really respected about him, about his acting, and about the projects that he chose. So I think it spoke to him.

Tate: How did you get Jones to come speak to your students?

Wohl: So we had some faculty, we had students appear in the film. We’d been trying to get James Earl Jones as a speaker at State for years, and had no luck. Just on a whim, I knew the casting director [who] told me where they were staying, which is one of the motels in Beckley, the cast while they were down there, Econo Lodge, or one of the cheap motels that was out there.

Yeah, and I called a couple of times and just asked to speak to him, and sort of luckily, he actually answered the phone. Before he hung up, I said, ‘Hey, I’m a theater instructor at West Virginia State. It’s a historically black college. We’d love to have you come up for a day. I can give, I can give you probably, you know, 500 bucks or 1,000 bucks, and pick you up and bring you to campus.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know what the shooting schedule is going to be, but I’d love to do it.’ And I said, ‘Great.’ And so we traded phone calls back and forth, and when we scheduled one day and they had a shoot, he was called for that day. We couldn’t do it.

At the last minute, he said, ‘I’m free. Can someone come get me?’ I said, ‘I will send a student out and bring you to campus.’ Which I did. And I don’t even remember what month it was. I think it was winter, January, February. And I happened to be teaching my acting class that day at the fine arts building. He came in around 9 o’clock – I think my class was 9:30 – I introduced myself, and he sat down with the class for an hour and a half and talked about his experience and his career and acting tips. And he was just marvelous, just wonderful.

Tate: The film got many critical accolades, but few awards. Why?

Wohl: Because it’s not a studio film. They couldn’t publicize it. They couldn’t release it widely. It’s one of the difficulties that independent filmmakers have. Unless it’s a Marvel film, it’s tough, unless you’ve got backing. A lot of these films have gotten critically acclaimed, but they don’t make money, in terms of how much money you’re going to put up. They’ve got to do it on the cheap. Critically acclaimed doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful at the box office, you know? It’s not a feel-good film. It’s got a story. It’s slow in developing. The characters are really interesting, but it’s not an action film. It’s not a comedy, it’s not monsters, and so it’s always going to have a small audience, and that’s one of the difficulties in independent filmmaking.

Tate: One of the themes of the film that resonates today is that the union movement in the coalfields was a multiracial coalition. Whereas the coal companies tried to use racial differences as a wedge between workers to discourage them from forming the union.

Wohl: That’s one of the basic tenets of it. You got the Italians who settled in southern West Virginia who came over to work in the mines. You had the blacks, and then you had the poor whites. I think it was pretty accurate in terms of those sort of disparate communities and the union sort of bringing it together. I think that was one of the big messages that Sayles wanted to get across in the film by having these separate, identifiable communities, and then the whole idea of the union, then bringing it together in terms of commonalities.

It’s interesting. It’s pretty topical now in terms of the political environment, where we’ve got people trying to divide us because of our differences. I think what Sayles was trying to do was saying, we got more in common than you think. We all have to buy from the company store. We’re all living in these horrible conditions. We’re not better than anyone else. And I think that that’s part of the arc, message, of that movie.

A W.Va. ‘Hidden Figure’ Receives Congressional Gold Medal

Katherine Johnson and her NASA colleagues were the subject of a book and a film. President Barack Obama awarded her a Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Katherine Johnson, born in White Sulphur Springs in 1918, became one of NASA’s Hidden Figures – the Black women who performed the mathematical calculations that launched America into space.

Johnson and her NASA colleagues were the subject of a book and a film. President Barack Obama awarded her a Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Johnson died in 2020 at age 101. Now Congress has honored the space pioneers by awarding them its Gold Medal. Johnson’s daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore accepted on her behalf.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the Hidden Figures made the Gemini and Apollo missions successful, including the moon landing in 1969.

“The women we honor today made it possible for earthlings to lift beyond the bounds of Earth. And for generations of trailblazers to follow.”

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who helped get the legislation honoring Johnson through Congress, noted the difficulties Johnson faced as a Black woman at a time when few jobs in the space program went to either.

“And as a West Virginian, Katherine used her toughness and grit to surpass societal barriers and turn her dreams into a reality. Her legacy will be remembered every time we look at the moon and remember how her work and their work took us there for the first time.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York reminded the audience that the Hidden Figures attended HBCUs – historically black colleges and universities. In Johnson’s case, that was West Virginia State College, now West Virginia State University.

“They went on to build legendary careers. And helped to shape the exceptionalism of American aeronautics.”

A professor Johnson had at WVSU encouraged her to pursue a career in research mathematics. And with his help, she eventually landed at a predecessor to NASA.

Johnson worked at NASA for 33 years, retiring in 1986, during the height of the shuttle program.

HBCU Greek Organizations Carry On The Tradition Of Stepping During WVSU’s Annual Homecoming Step Show

Inside the Appalachian mountains of Institute, West Virginia lies one of the nation’s leading public institutions of higher education for African Americans. In 1891, West Virginia State University (WVSU) was founded, and it is full of rich history and cultural traditions. One of the school’s biggest traditions each year is Homecoming. The annual week-long celebration is filled with on- and off-campus activities. The step show is always a crowd favorite.

This story originally aired in the Feb. 25, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips recently attended the 2023 West Virginia State University Homecoming step show with her 11-year-old daughter, Jayli, and has this story of a tradition that is common at most Homecomings at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

Inside the old WVSU gymnasium, the space is filled with sounds of clapping, stomping, chanting, music and audience enthusiasm. Members of the public are in the bleachers surrounding the basketball court where the stage is set up.

College students representing each Greek organization on campus take turns entering the gym to a selected song or chant. Along with the undergrads are alumni from the 1960s through present day. After their grand entrance, the students take to the stage and perform a three- to five-minute routine. Everyone wears Greek paraphernalia — hats, boots, pins and sweatshirts — in their organization’s colors.

“You got Delta Sigma Theta walking out right now,” Jayli announces.

Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority that was founded in 1913, is just one of the sororities that is stepping today. As an HBCU graduate and Delta member myself, I thought it was important for my daughter, Jayli, to know this history and to experience this culture. Her being here is a rite of passage. Both of Jayli’s grandmothers are WVSU graduates. I am hoping she will one day attend an HBCU and be a Delta, too.

“Let’s see, I think they are about to stomp and clap again,” Jayli says. “I think they’re all helping each other out. That’s what I see.”

This is all part of a long tradition at HBCUs. The Homecoming step show is a way for African American fraternities and sororities to express love and pride for their respective organizations to a broader community. It is also a way for alumni and community members to reunite.

Kenny Hale of Charleston, West Virginia is at the step show today. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and was initiated during the 1970s at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

“Homecoming is when you see all this crowd come in and you get to see the people you knew and went to school with,” Hale says. “And just the enthusiasm that an HBCU brings with the power and the fellowship of scholarly people.”

Addison Hall of Cincinnati, Ohio is an alumni of WVSU and is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He says the Homecoming step show is a reunion.

“It’s a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a while showing back up, being in the same space that y’all shared and created all these memories at,” Hall says.

Members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity performing during the 2023 WVSU Homecoming step show.

*Photo Credit: Traci Phillips/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Shanequa Smith is from New York. She went to WVSU and now lives in Charleston, West Virginia. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

“I’m Greek, and so it’s just a joyous time, and stepping is part of our history. It goes way back. And so this is a part of that, where we get to stay connected,” Smith says. “And it’s always good to see different people actually taking up that throne of stepping.”

The origin and roots of stepping stems from African cultural traditions. Stepping can be described as a synchronized movement using stomping and clapping. During the 20th century, America’s Black fraternities and sororities played a unique part in the reemergence of stepping on college campuses. Almost three million members strong, America’s nine Black sororities and fraternities are part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine.

Up next to perform is Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority that was founded in 1908.

“They are walking out with little kids and everybody’s holding up their pinky for the AKAs,” Jayli says. “They are rockin’ this … They have a brown outfit with their state facts on it.”

One of today’s performers is Ashlyn Bell, a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority member from Charleston, West Virginia. Bell is a junior majoring in elementary education. She says part of why she joined a sorority was her memories of going to step shows.

“Growing up in West Virginia, I came to Homecoming all the time and I just always seen the community. Actually, my mom is a Delta, so I’m a legacy. And we would come down and watch the step shows and I just remember really enjoying it,” Bell says. “It was lit, it was just over-the-top loud. I just thought it was so fun and so cool. Just couldn’t keep my eyes off what they were doing, how they’re moving with their hands, and jumping and screaming. I just thought it was amazing.”

This year, Bell performed by herself, representing her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. She came out to the 1970s hit song, “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn, and early 2000s hit song “Knuck If You Buck” by Crime Mobb, doing a move called “the duck.” To do the duck, Bell says you have to, “bend your knees, hands out, head turned slightly up just a little bit. You know, you just lean into it.”

Bell wears black shorts, a red vest with Delta designs on it, sunglasses and spray-painted red boots. “The boots are actually traditional, something that past Alpha Delta chapter members have done for the step show,” Bell says. “So I’m gonna continue the tradition.”

Ashlyn Bell poses before her performance at the WVSU Homecoming step show. Her hand signal represents the shape of the letter “D” for Delta in the Greek alphabet.

*Photo courtesy of Kristy Lyles-Bell*

Clothing and Greek paraphernalia are a big part of the step show. Debra Hart is the director of Equity Programs at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and was initiated during the 1970s on the campus of West Virginia State University.

“When we crossed line in 1976, we all had to get a white suit made with a red shirt. And we got gloves and we got boots to match,” Hart says. “All 12 of us had a cane, and we were going to tap the canes and cross them back and forth.”

Kids are also a part of the community at Homecoming. Hart says she remembers going to a step show as young as eight years old.

“My grandmother would dress us in black and gold, because we’re all going to State’s Homecoming. When I was ten years old, I remember aggravating my family to stay for the step show,” Hart says.

Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips (back middle), poses with her family during the West Virginia State University step show. Family members include (from left to right): Brother, Danny Adkins — member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity — and his daughter, Ellie Adkins; son, True Phillips; and daughter, Jayli Phillips.

*Photo courtesy of LaQwanza Jackson*

After the step show, I asked my daughter, Jayli, what she thought of her experience.

“I thought the step show was really empowering and motivating. The people out there stepping looked really good,” Jayli says. “I loved it, it looked like a fun thing to do. I can’t wait to get there and do it myself one day.”

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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

Us & Them: HBCUs Surround Students With Black Excellence While Aiming For A Global Experience

Born from an era of segregated educational opportunities when Black students were not welcome at predominantly white schools, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been focused on surrounding students with Black excellence.

Today, HBCUs are no longer exclusive. In fact, some schools — like Morgan State University — are actively recruiting a more diverse population to provide a more global experience to prepare graduates for the future. In West Virginia, white students already make up a significant majority of the enrollment at the state’s two HBCUs.

Us & Them host Trey Kay looks at this era of intense competition for students and how some of the nation’s 100-plus HBCUs are adapting for the future.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the Daywood Foundation.