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Journey Along the Civil Rights Trail Gives White Travelers a Unique Perspective of America's Race History

Travel is an activity some people use as a classroom. Leaving the familiar lets us learn about culture, history, the environment and many other topics.

Recently, a small group spent six days traveling America’s southern states to learn about the country’s racial past and the impact of the Civil Rights movement today. This immersive tour took them across several states to places that have come to define periods in America’s racial history—from Charleston, South Carolina’s slave trade market to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

The group visited sites that put this country’s racist history on display, and Us & Them host Trey Kay was along to hear them reflect on our nation and themselves.

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

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James Person, one of the original Freedom Riders, in Atlanta, GA, with Us & Them host Trey Kay

Professor Todd Allen speaking to a tour group at King Center in Atlanta, GA.

Us & Them host Trey Kay at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA

Final resting place for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, GA.

Betsy Disharoon in her art studio in the suburbs of Boston, MA.

McLeod Plantation is a former slave plantation located on James Island, near Charleston, SC.

John Gardiner stands in front of small cabins, which once house enslaved people, and speaks about the history of the McLeod Plantation and the slave trade in Charleston, SC.

Aziz Abu Sarah, founder of Mejdi Tours, rides on a bus heading to Charleston, SC and tells travelers about his experience as a Palestinian growing up in Jerusalem.

Mejdi Tours’ Civil Rights Journey stops at the site of the future International African American Museum in Charleston, SC.

February 17, 1863: W.Va. Constitutional Convention Adopts the Willey Amendment

On February 17, 1863, the West Virginia Constitutional Convention adopted the Willey Amendment, which settled the issue of slavery and paved the way for West Virginia to become the 35th state.

While slavery was relatively uncommon in most parts of the new state, West Virginia did have about 18,000 slaves—contrasted with a half-million living in Virginia. Although the issue was hotly debated at times, West Virginia’s founders ultimately decided to allow slavery within its borders. However, the issue was unacceptable to Congress, which had to approve West Virginia statehood. The so-called Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate refused to admit another slave state without significant restrictions.

Senator Waitman Willey of Morgantown stepped in with a proposal. Working with fellow Republicans in the Senate, Willey formulated a compromise that allowed slavery in the state but provided for gradual emancipation over time. Since the Willey Amendment wasn’t part of the original statehood plan, the West Virginia Constitutional Convention had to be called back into session to approve the compromise. The convention’s approval cleared the last hurdle for West Virginia to become a state.

February 3, 1865: Governor Arthur Boreman Signs Legislative Act Banning Slavery in W.Va.

On February 3, 1865, West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman signed a legislative act banning slavery in the state. A common misconception is that West Virginia entered the Union in 1863 as a free state.

However, in reality, it was the last slave state ever admitted to the Union. While most state founders wanted to allow slavery without restrictions, Congressional Republicans threatened to block West Virginia’s statehood efforts over the issue. A compromise, known as the Willey Amendment, provided for the gradual emancipation of most, but not all, slaves in the new state.

While slavery had existed in Western Virginia from the earliest days of settlement, it never prospered on a widespread basis. By 1860, Western Virginia was home to fewer than 20,000 slaves, compared to some half-a-million living in present-day Virginia. This disparity was due largely to Western Virginia’s rugged terrain, which produced small farms as opposed to the sprawling slave plantations of Virginia’s Tidewater region.

When West Virginia became a state, two-thirds of the slaves were concentrated in Jefferson, Berkeley, Kanawha, Hampshire, and Greenbrier counties. The new state was also home to nearly 3,000 free blacks.

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.

Vermont Honors W.Va. Abolitionist John Brown, Declares Oct. 16 John Brown Day

As some communities consider removing Confederate monuments, the state of Vermont is formally honoring West Virginia abolitionist John Brown.

John Brown’s 1859 raid was an important step in the events that led to the Civil War, and to the creation of West Virginia.

Last spring, the Vermont State Legislature approved a resolution sought by a Woodstock high school teacher designating October 16 as John Brown Day in Vermont. That’s the anniversary of the raid Brown led on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia. Brown had hoped to start an armed slave revolt. He was executed two months later.

An anti-racism symposium took place on Oct. 14 at the Woodstock Union High School in Vermont, where Brown will also be discussed on Oct. 16.

In Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, the John Brown Wax Museum is open 7 days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.