Historically Black Colleges and Universities Story Archives

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.”

——

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.

Dr. Yacob Astatke is the assistant vice president for International Affairs at Morgan State University. He came to Morgan as an international student from Ethiopia in 1988 to study engineering and has been there ever since – first as a professor and now as an administrator.

Holmes Hall on the campus of Morgan State University.

Students on the campus of Morgan State University. MSU is not an exclusively Black institution, but the student body is predominantly comprised of persons of African heritage.

West Virginia State University is an HBCU that has a predominantly white student body.

Sharon Smith Banks worked at West Virginia State University for 30 years. From 1990 to 2021. During her time at State, many students referred to her as Mama Banks. She is photographed here next to the grave marker of Samuel Cabell in a Cabell Family Graveyard on the WVSU campus. Cabell was a plantation owner, who produced a family with Mary Barnes, who one of his slaves. The couple provided their 15 children with an exceptional education and they went on to become accomplished citizens. Portions of the original Cabell plantation was sold to the state of West Virginia and the West Virginia Colored Institute was founded in 1891, which has subsequently become West Virginia State University.

Eric Jackson is the interim Chief of Staff at West Virginia State University. He is also the Title III administrator for institution, which oversees the special federal funding they receive for being an HBCU.

Ben Trujillo is a student at West Virginia State University. He was adopted into a mixed race family. He says he chose to attend State because he was looking for a learning experience that was “more minority driven” and where he could “interact with individuals who are maybe culturally aligned with me.”

Devon Pring is among the majority of white students attending West Virginia State University. He comes from rural West Virginia and had little interaction with people of color in his public school education. He says he’s learning more than just academics at State. He feels like he’s now more aware of other cultures and the Black struggle in America.

Jasmine Coleman attends West Virginia State University for the nursing program and is also part of the majorette dance team. She says it was important for her to study at an HBCU because she grew up with little support in her education pursuits. She felt an HBCU would help her financially, socially and mentally.

Storer College Celebrates 150-Year Legacy

This year marks 150 years since Storer College was established in Harpers Ferry. The school came out of the Civil War first as a place to teach former slaves how to read and write, and then by the 1930s, it had evolved into a four-year, higher education institution for African-Americans. But in 1955, it closed due to lack of funding. Still, the legacy of Storer College continues to be celebrated each year in the Eastern Panhandle.

In the fall of 1946, Charles Town resident Russell Roper attended his first year at Storer College. He was 21. Before that, he’d dropped out of high school to join the United States Navy and fight in World War II. When he came home, he took an entrance exam to attend Storer College on the GI bill.

Today, Roper is 92.

“My wife went to Storer College, and I had a lot of relatives in the area that we were related to [who] went to Storer College; I can’t name ‘em all now, but it was something they were proud of,” Roper said, “and it was a part of a person’s life growing up.”

Roper played football for Storer – sporting the school’s gold and ivory colors on the field. He frequented the campus church, and it was at Storer he met his future wife.

In 1950, Roper graduated with a degree in business administration, and still uses it today running a construction company with his son.

“I’m proud to be an alumni from Storer College,” he explained, “I mean, I wouldn’t have it any other way, you know, and I graduated out of one of the largest classes that came from Storer College, and it’s sad that it just didn’t continue, that’s all I can say.”

Storer College Alum Russell Roper (center). 1950 graduate.

Storer College closed five years after Roper graduated. The school lost federal funding after Brown v. Board of Education ended legal segregation in schools. Storer couldn’t afford to stay open.

But the legacy of the school continues to live on. In the 1960s, the National Park Service purchased the property and turned it into a training center for park rangers.

“This was Anthony Hall,” Park Ranger and historian John Rudy explained, “so the auditorium was upstairs, the choir room was down the hall, the president’s room was down the other hall, so this is the epicenter.”

The Storer College room inside the Stephen Mather Training Center, formerly Anthony Hall.

Inside former Anthony Hall, which was once the main building on the campus, is a room honoring Storer College. It’s painted gold and red. The letters SC are displayed at the top of each wall. Photographs and paintings of teachers, principals, and notable alumni are hung. Memorabilia from the heyday of the school is on display in glass cases, and some books from the school’s library are in bookshelves.

Rudy said it’s important to remember Storer College, because of its significance in American history.

“For me, this is when America starts, almost, making up for the problems of its past,” he noted, “So in 1867, you have a country that’s full of folks who can’t read and write, former slaves, who have now been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but now, they are completely unarmed for dealing with freedom, and Storer College is one of those places where they start to get the tools of freedom; learning to read and write, learning to count, learning to make sure that contract that you’re being handed is fair. All of that starts right here on the hill, right here in the panhandle.”

When the Civil War ended in 1865, there were over 30,000 newly freed slaves in the Shenandoah Valley. Storer College came about from a combined effort of people – the New England Freewill Baptists and a philanthropist from Maine named John Storer; all of whom wanted to help those newly freed men and women.

The site of Storer College went through several changes over time – first it was a home, then a hospital during the Civil War, then it became a primary school, then a teacher’s college, and then by the 1930s, a full-fledged, four-year institution.

“This place touches thousands of students. This place really affects the lives of the entire black community in the mid-Atlantic.” – John Rudy

Rudy said Storer was among the first wave of historically black colleges and universities in the United States, and he points to a couple prominent moments in the school’s history.

In 1881, former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a keynote speech at Storer to dedicate the school. The speech was about John Brown, a white man and abolitionist who led a raid Harpers Ferry in 1859 to end slavery.

“So Douglass, a former slave, is now standing here in the 1880s, probably one of the best speakers in America, standing on a rostrum dedicating a school for former slaves; for men and women just like him who want to read and write and become famous orators; who look up to him as their idol, and the speech he gives here, he says the Civil War didn’t start in Charleston, South Carolina, it didn’t start with Fort Sumter, it started in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and it started when John Brown struck the blow against slavery in 1859. This wasn’t a war that started far away, it was a war that started right here at home,” Rudy explained.

Photo of the first American meeting of the Niagra Movement. It was held at Storer College in 1906. The Movement was a precursor to the NAACP.

Storer College also played a role in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1906, the school was the site of the first American meeting of the Niagara Movement, which would later become the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.

Rudy says part of the legacy of Storer College is about drawing strength from the heroes of the past, and 1950 alum Russell Roper agrees.

“[Storer College] set an example,” Roper said, “Well if you say, where do you go to school? Oh, I go down to Storer College. You know, it helped a lot of people. If [students] did not last but a couple years, it still helped them, it put them on the right track; it put them on the right path.”

And that’s not to say Storer College didn’t see it’s fair share of difficulties and prejudice, but both Rudy and Roper say students and faculty never gave up on the school. Even after it closed, and now 150 years later, the legacy of Storer is annually celebrated and remembered.

March 17, 1891: State Legislature Establishes the West Virginia Colored Institute

On March 17, 1891, the West Virginia Legislature established the West Virginia Colored Institute eight miles west of Charleston. It was one of the nation’s original 17 black land-grant colleges.The school’s initial purpose was to teach trades, but the academic and teacher education programs quickly grew popular. Under the leadership of John W. Davis, the school became one of the country’s most-respected black colleges. Davis was able to recruit some of the nation’s best educators, including Carter G. Woodson. Other faculty members were nationally known artists, musicians, and scientists. In 1927, the school became regionally accredited—the first of the original black land-grant colleges to achieve this status. Two years later, the school’s name was changed to West Virginia State College.

By mid-century, State was facing declining enrollment. In response, President William J. L. Wallace established evening programs to recruit adults and opened the school’s doors to white students. Soon, the number of white students far outnumbered black students, making State a national model for racial integration.

The campus and enrollment expanded significantly in the late 20^th century. And, in 2004, West Virginia State achieved university status.