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Harpers Ferry’s Ties To Civil Rights Movement Showcased In New Documentary

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.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Recognizes Anniversary Of John Brown Raid

The raid took place more than 160 years ago and is thought of as one of the events that precipitated the Civil War.

This weekend marks the anniversary of John Brown’s raid at the U.S. armory in Harpers Ferry.

On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown set out to raid the armory for weapons, which would be used to arm those opposed to the institution of slavery. The raid failed when Brown and his men were captured the morning of Oct. 18. A group of U.S. Marines laid siege to the fire engine house, now known as John Brown’s Fort, the raiders had been driven into.

The raid took place more than 160 years ago and is thought of as one of the events that precipitated the Civil War.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park representative Leah Taber says many of the questions the raid raised are still relevant today.

“His impact didn’t just end with the suppression of the raid or the Civil War,” Taber said. “We still are talking about what John Brown means as far as racial justice, or if violence is ever okay as a means to an end.”

The park is putting on a “living history” presentation with the Marine Corps Historical Company, titled “At All Times Ready.” The presentation will show how the raid unfolded on the site’s actual grounds through a first-person perspective of the figures involved.

“It will allow our visitors to experience John Brown’s raid through the stories of those Marines, through townspeople both white and Black and through the eyes of John Brown himself, even, so that they can gain a greater understanding of how Harpers Ferry became one of the key places in civil rights history, ultimately,” Taber said.

The event is scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., beginning on The Green at Harpers Ferry’s historic Lower Town and ending at John Brown’s Fort, which was moved 150 feet from its original location in 1968 after being acquired by the National Park Service eight years prior. Marine Corps Historical Company staffers will also be at the fort from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to provide education to visitors.

December 2, 1859: John Brown Hanged For Raid on Harper's Ferry

On December 2, 1859, abolitionist John Brown was hanged in Charles Town for treason for his raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry six weeks earlier. While Brown’s raid had failed miserably, his capture and hanging had a much greater impact on national events. Brown’s actions set off shockwaves across the country. In the North, many hailed him as a hero. In the South, he was viewed as a villain and a true reflection of the North’s intended war on slavery.

Tensions mounted in the days leading up to Brown’s execution. Rumors of a massive jailbreak circulated in both the North and South. The jail and gallows were guarded by Virginia troops, including Major Thomas Jackson—later to be known as “Stonewall.”

As Brown was brought to the gallows, he handed off a note that read, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood.” Perhaps more than any other event, Brown’s death hastened a cascade of events that culminated with the first shots of the Civil War 16 months later.

August 15, 1906: Niagara Movement Meets in Harpers Ferry

The Niagara Movement—an important civil rights group—held its first public meeting at Harpers Ferry’s Storer College on August 15, 1906.

The movement emerged from increasing philosophical differences between Booker T. Washington—the most powerful black leader of his day—and more radical intellectuals.

While Washington wanted to work more closely with the white community to improve African-Americans’ economic status, his critics—led by W. E. B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, and others—urged a more militant approach.

The one-year-old movement was named for an earlier meeting at Niagara Falls. The leaders chose Harpers Ferry for its first public meeting in honor of abolitionist John Brown, who’d led an ill-fated raid on the town’s armory in 1859.

The 1906 assembly included a barefoot pilgrimage to John Brown’s Fort, and DuBois dedicated the group’s mission to Brown. Although most of the Niagara leaders were not from West Virginia, J. R. Clifford—a graduate of Storer College and West Virginia’s first black lawyer and newspaper publisher—played an active role.

The Niagara Movement dissolved in 1911, when DuBois suggested forming a new interracial group: the NAACP.

October 16, 1859: John Brown Captures U.S. Armory

On the night of October 16, 1859, a band of antislavery men under John Brown captured the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry. Earlier in the year, Brown had settled into a western Maryland farmhouse, where he trained his 18-man army in military tactics. His goal was to seize weapons from the national armory at Harpers Ferry and arm slaves, who would then overthrow their masters.

The raid, though, was a fiasco. Brown’s first victim was a railroad night watchman who was a free African American. The raiders also killed the town’s mayor. Infuriated—and mostly drunken—townspeople grabbed their rifles and trapped Brown’s men in the armory’s fire engine house. On the morning of October 18, U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee captured Brown and the eight raiders who had survived the ordeal. Brown was convicted of treason and hanged in nearby Charles Town six weeks later.

More than any other event, the raid divided the nation between North and South. With his last words, Brown predicted that slavery would lead to civil war. Less than a year-and-a-half later, his words would come true.

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.