Poet Anne Spencer died on July 27, 1975, at age 93. Born Annie Bethel Bannister in Virginia, she and her mother moved to Bramwell in Mercer County, West Virginia when Anne was three years old.
During her childhood and adolescent years in Bramwell, she acquired a deep appreciation for nature as the surrounding countryside nourished her creativity and influenced her writing.
While attending the Virginia Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, she still spent her summers and holidays in Bramwell. After graduating, she returned to Bramwell regularly. Between 1899 and 1901, Anne Spencer taught school in Maybeury and Elkhorn in McDowell County before moving permanently to Lynchburg.
During the Harlem Renaissance, Spencer’s writing was discovered by the novelist James Weldon Johnson. In 1920, he published her poem “Before the Feast at Shushan” in The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP. Spencer’s poetry was published in many magazines and anthologies, including the first edition of the prestigious Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Her poetry was praised by critics, including H. L. Mencken.
Anne Spencer continued to write until just before her death. Her last poem was titled simply “1975.”
The executive director of an office charged with reviewing research on policies that disproportionately affect minority populations says she doesn’t plan to step down after a coalition of about 30 members of progressive and racial justice groups held a press conference calling for her removal.
Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs Executive Director Jill Upson tells the Register-Herald she would agree to a sit-down meeting with those concerned.
Credit Jill Upson / Twitter
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Twitter
NAACP representatives and others held signs Tuesday outside the office in the West Virginia Capitol. Governor Jim Justice recently appointed Upson to lead the office that’s also charged with applying for and awarding grants, and making recommendations to the governor and Legislature.
Some said they didn’t support the appointment for reasons, including a voter ID law she supported. The Henderson Family has also requested that Justice rescind the appointment.
A long-time advocate for civil rights among African-Americans in West Virginia has passed away.
James Alvin Tolbert Sr, passed away last week in hospice care in Kearneysville. He was 85.
Tolbert served as President of the West Virginia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, from 1986 to 2007. He was a Life Member of the organization and chaired Region III, which covered seven states including West Virginia.
He also worked in the medical field for several years as both a medical and nuclear medical technologist.
He’s been recognized for numerous local, state, and national services, earning various awards and recognition in the name of civil and human rights.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, at Eackles-Spencer & Norton Funeral Home, 256 Halltown Road, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425.
The funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at Zion Episcopal Church, 301 East Congress St., Charles Town, WV 25414.
In lieu of flowers, it is suggested that donations be made to Hospice of the Panhandle, 30 Hospice Lane, Kearneysville, WV 25430.
Members of the West Virginia NAACP have requested the creation of a citizens’ police review board for one of the state’s largest cities.
News outlets report West Virginia NAACP President Owens Brown and the Wheeling NAACP proposed the creation of an independent board to analyze the Wheeling Police Department at Tuesday’s city council meeting. The board would be made up of local citizens from different religious and fraternal organizations.
Browns says he’s heard from community members who feel that police are stopping and harassing them, and that there’s no check on the department’s authority.
Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger says he created an office of professional standards within the department to investigate complaints.
Mayor Glenn Elliott says he’d speak to council members and city administrators to determine a response.
Teacher and civic activist Memphis Tennessee Carter was born in Hollins, Virginia, on March 3, 1890.
Her father, a former slave, was a coal miner who moved his family to southern West Virginia when Memphis was a child.
She eventually married a coal company foreman and became Memphis Tennessee Garrison. She graduated from Bluefield State College at age 49 and taught school in McDowell County.
Serving also as a welfare worker for the U.S. Steel Corporation, Garrison helped settle racial disputes, counseled black miners and their families, and developed cultural and recreational opportunities in the town of Gary.
She was active in the Republican Party and developed NAACP chapters in southern West Virginia. As a national vice president and field secretary for the NAACP, she led special organizing and membership activities. A crowning achievement of her work was the creation of the Christmas Seal Project, which became a key fund-raising strategy for the NAACP.
After retiring from McDowell County schools, she relocated to Huntington and continued to work as a substitute teacher. Memphis Tennessee Garrison died in Huntington in 1988 at the age of 98.
The NAACP’s annual state convention took place over the weekend on the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University featuring a panel discussion where speakers tackled some of the biggest racial issues facing the state.
A couple hundred people came out over the weekend for the banquet at Wheeling Jesuit University to hear a keynote address from author and attorney Sharon Eubanks – a civil litigation trial lawyer. Eubanks was lead counsel in the historic federal tobacco lawsuit United States v. Philip Morris USA. She offered moving, personal accounts of racial hurdles she overcame to achieve professional success.
The convention continued Saturday with a panel discussion titled “Justice in America in Black and White.” Panelists included Wheeling lawyer James Bordas, Hancock County Judge Ronald E. Wilson, Attorney Sharon Eubanks, Wheeling’s Chief of Police Shawn Schwertfeger, Reverend Matthew J. Watts from Charleston, and professor at Marshall University Phillip Carter.
The NAACP’s panel discussion was titled: “Justice in America in Black and White.” Speakers included local law enforcement officials and community leaders from around the state and region.
One panelist – Charleston-resident Reverend Matthew Watts, offered history and analysis of the racial disparities in the state. He spoke, for example, about how the felon label is a cornerstone of dysfunction in our society – along with a myriad of other failed government policies.
“We have major problems in West Virginia and we are in an absolute state of denial about how bad things are for black people wherever they live,” Watts said. “And because blacks are in such small numbers they’re not rioting and protesting and demonstrating – and fortunately police are doing a pretty good job – they’re not shooting unarmed people.”
But Hancock County Judge Ronald Wilson pointed out that here in West Virginia we do send a disproportionate percentage of the black community to jail:
“There is no question that the statistics are not good in WV. The black population is only about three percent, but in our prison system, of every 100,000 people 400 are white 2000 are black.”
If the Census Bureau’s federal prison counts were removed from this analysis, the incarceration rates would be 396 for Whites, 370 for Hispanics, 1911 for Blacks, and 726 for American Indian and Alaska Natives.
Wheeling’s Chief of Police offered thoughts about how and why there are so few black officers on the force – but said he was quote “handcuffed” and unable to do anything about it. Ideas were tossed between panelists and audience members on how to address this and many issues. But Rev. Watts is calling for less conversation and more action like reinvesting in urban America and restoring full citizenship for all non-violent offenders.
The conversation on racial issues this weekend revealed systemic dysfunction in the state. Speakers identified how it will probably take multiple reforms from the highest levels of government to effectively address the problems.
