Tag: History

Mountain Stage at 30: A Radio Retrospective

For 30 years and with over 800 episodes, Mountain Stage has been a mainstay in public radio and American music.

Like anything that evolves into a lasting endeavor, Mountain Stage’s success is part happenstance mixed with years of dedication and hard work. Truly, though, it all comes down to the people who made the show possible coming together with a shared vision.

In this hour-long radio special, you’ll hear how the show came to be, its rise to a national program, and examine what it is that makes Mountain Stage mean so much to the artists who have performed on the show and the audience it reaches.

Fifty Years Later, West Virginians Remember JFK's Death

Fifty years ago Friday, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The killing shocked the nation and world and, to this day, people still talk about it. Many West Virginians are remembering where they were the day the President was killed.

The West Virginians who are remembering that day include Mountain Stage host Larry Groce, who was living near Dallas at the time.

LarryGroce.mp3
Larry Groce shares his JFK memory.

Others who share their memories include: Maura Brackett, who worked in the White House, and a Princeton man who served as a local campaign manager for Kennedy during the 1960 campaign.

This is audio collected from West Virginia television stations following the death of President Kennedy, exclusive to this digital version of our story:

REPORTER.mp3
Reporters at the Capitol.
WTRF,_PEOPLE_ON_THE_STREET_REACT_TO_JFK'S_DEATH.mp3
WTRF collected man on the street interviews following the death of JFK.
COMMENTARY_ON_JFK'S_DEATH.mp3
Commentary about the death of JFK.

Remembering The Farmington Mine Disaster

Wednesday is the 45th anniversary of a mine explosion in Farmington, W.Va., that claimed the lives of 78 men. Time Trail, West Virginia, from the state…

Wednesday is the 45th anniversary of a mine explosion in Farmington, W.Va., that claimed the lives of 78 men. Time Trail, West Virginia, from the state Division of Culture and History, describes what happened that day.

November 20, 1968: The Farmington mine disaster

After an explosion tore through Consolidation Coal Company’s Number 9 mine in Farmington, there was still hope that miners trapped below ground found a way to survive.

The explosion occurred early on the morning of November 20, 1968. Flames and smoke shot out through the mine’s Lewellyn and Mod’s Run portals. Twenty-one miners were rescued but many others were trapped.

The evening of the explosion, William Poundstone, a Consol vice president, said rescue efforts couldn’t be mounted right away because of the fire.

"We expect no major developments during the night simply because we must wait until the flames die down. Our best estimate is that at least 70 miners are still trapped inside the mine. We do have on hand the best and most skilled mine rescue teams that are available in the country. They are standing by. But we feel that at this time we cannot send them in to commence rescue operations because of the fire."

Seventy-eight miners were trapped in the mine after the initial explosion. After several more explosions and increasing smoke and flames,  it became more evident that rescue crews would have to wait.

My own personal concern has been to try to work with the federal bureau and the state people to make the proper moves to get this fire under control and get ourselves in a position so we can send rescue men in to rescue these miners. I know that the mine workers' organization is at work in this regard," said Poundstone.

After a few days, two rescue teams entered the mine. But, after about four hours of searching, they encountered enough methane to blow the mine again so they were ordered out. Officials finally came to the difficult conclusion that the 78 trapped miners were dead and decided the mine should be sealed so the fire could be put out.

The existence of today’s Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is due, in large part, to the Farmington mine disaster.

Civil Rights Activist visits Marshall as part of Constitution Week

Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary…

  Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary of the rides.

Joan C. Browning was a Freedom Rider. The Riders were a group of men and women who boarded buses and trains headed for the Deep South in 1961 to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities. What makes Browning’s perspective different though is that she’s Caucasian.

“I just felt lucky to see what was going to happen and to be able to choose a role for me in it and to be able to be in a group with people that I knew would support me. I felt very lucky, I really felt like I was in the right place doing the right thing and whatever happened then or later, for one time in my life I did the right thing,” Browning said.

Browning was at Marshall University this week as part of Constitution Week. While on campus she spoke to classes about what her experiences were like.

“I was one of the few white people that was involved in the black freedom struggle in the south in the early 1960’s and the sit-in movement and I was a Freedom Rider and picketed and things of that nature. I’m sort of that oddity that you don’t expect when you read about the civil rights movement,” Browning said.

And she gave two lectures, one on civic responsibility and the other on the relationship between the constitution and civil rights.

Browning joined the Freedom Riders after attending an all-black Methodist Church in Milledgeville, Georgia. As a result of her church attendance, she was thrown out of Georgia State College for Women. In June of 1961, she moved to Atlanta where she discovered the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that would later organize the Freedom Rides. Browning says it excites her when she sees young people following standing up for things they believe in.

“When the occupy movement first started I was very excited, I thought it was possibly the beginning of a mass resurgence of young people and empower people to take to the streets literally. I’m at the point now where I can’t march very long, but I can be in the back cheering people on and doing whatever I can to encourage it and that’s one reason I talk to young people is to try to encourage them,” Browning said.

Browning volunteered with SNCC on projects in Georgia and Alabama, worked in human relations and anti-poverty programs throughout the sixties and was an organizer of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

In the end, Browning said she still speaks to classes and groups because she wants people to know no matter their situation they still have power.

“I want them to know that young people have power, poor people have power, old people have power, and you know the great panthers came out of the model of the freedom rides. I want people to feel like this is your world and you have a chance and a right to make it the way you want it to and find other people and don’t give up, don’t give in,” Browning said.

Browning now lives in Greenbrier County and has a degree from West Virginia State University. 

WV state seal turns 150

The official state seal is 150 years old today.On September 26, 1863 lawmakers in the newly formed State of West Virginia adopted the State Seal designed…

The official state seal is 150 years old today.

On September 26, 1863 lawmakers in the newly formed State of West Virginia adopted the State Seal designed by Joseph Hubert Diss Debar of Doddridge County.

   In the 150 years since, the state seal has never been changed. The front of the Seal, which shows a coal miner and farmer representing industry and agriculture, a rock engraved with the date of statehood, and two rifles crossed beneath the Cap of Liberty, has become a symbol of West Virginia. According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, the seal was designed and adopted with two sides, but only the front or obverse is in common use.

Credit Wikimedia
/
Wikimedia
The reverse side of West Virginia’s official state seal.

The reverse side of the seal is the governor’s seal. It is encircled by a wreath of laurel and oak leaves. A wooded mountain is on the left and a slope with a log farmhouse on the right. On the side of the mountain is a representation of the Tray Run Viaduct, as an engineering feat of the time, and a train about to pass over the viaduct. A factory, fronted by a river with boats, a derrick and a shed, and a meadow with sheep and cattle grazing indicate the leading characteristics and products of the state. Above, the sun emerges from the clouds, and the rays of the sun contain the Latin phrase ‘‘Libertas E Fidelitate,’’ which means ‘‘Freedom and Loyalty.’’

The Secretary of State is the official keeper of the state seal.

West Virginia 150: Commemorating Statehood

June 20, 2013 · West Virginia is the only state in the Union that was created as a direct result of the Civil War. When war broke out in 1861 and Virginia seceded from the Union, some living in that state’s western regions saw it as an opportunity to break away and create a new state.

 
West Virginia 150: Commemorating Statehood is a one hour documentary on the sesquicentennial of West Virginia’s birthday that explores the state’s rich cultural diversity and how the state’s history and other characteristics shaped today’s West Virginians. It also tried to answer the question “what does it mean to be a West Virginian?”

We explore how West Virginia’s mountainous terrain, the isolation found in many parts of the state, and the fact that outsiders have traditionally owned and managed the natural resources have impacted the people who live here.

Many early settlers were of German, Irish and Scots-Irish descent, but throughout its 150 year history the state has been home to notable African American’s. European recruitment by the coal and chemical companies brought workers from faraway places Italy, Poland and Spain. Many communities were historically home to Jewish and Lebanese Americans.

The presence of all these ethnic groups no doubt shaped the personality, attitudes and traditions of modern-day West Virginians.

Exit mobile version