Events are typically updated at the beginning of each month. See also Local News, WVU News, Regional News, and Calendar
Our monthly meetings are held via Zoom at present and generally occur every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.
There will be no regular monthly meeting in September. Instead, please join us at our CCSJ Picnic at Morgantown’s Marilla Park Pavilion on Sunday, September 8, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Eve Faulkes designed, wrote, and produced a graphic novel for the 64th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act event held by the CCSJ at Morgantown City library on July 2nd. The book has 4 chapters that are based on the personal stories of West Virginians who worked to eliminate discrimination and improve civil rights within the state. The storytellers included are:
Chapter 1: Al Anderson and Duane Nichols (see here for more about Duane).
Chapter 2: Ken Hechler, Rev. Ronald English, Joan C. Browning and her West Virginia Human Rights Commission Beloved Community (Charlene Marshall, Tim Hairston, Ivin Lee, Phyllis Carter, Tank Williams, Ken Gilbert, and H. R. Whittington), Winston Fuller, John Garlow Sr. and Dr. William Waddell; Maria Gaddis, John Watson, and John Gaddis.
Chapter 3: Dayna Pratt, Suraya Boggs, Hair! (Sierra Velez, Charlene Marshall, Sarah Little, Dayna Pratt) and the CROWN Act (Asha Gaines, Mavery Davis, Katonya Hart, Shirley and Mary Taylor), Carolyn Bailey Lewis and the Green Book , Don Spencer (see here for more about Don), Catherine Shipe East, Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, Rachel Welsh de Iga.
Chapter 4: Charlene Marshall, Reita Marks, Crystal Good, Janie Claytor-Woodson, Rev. Elizabeth Walker, Rosemary Ketchum, Cal Carlson.
The novel is complete but we are making plans to make it more widely available through the funding we have received from the FirstEnergy Foundation. Pictures of the chapters are below.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Eve and Joan Browning hosted the exhibit at MultiFest in Charleston from August 1st to 4th. Eve Faulkes hosted the poster version of our exhibit at Morgantown’s Art Walk on August 10th. Since then the exhibit has been shown at the Morgantown Art Walk on August 10th, at the Suncrest United Methodist Church in Morgantown for two weeks from August 16th to 30th, at the Clarksburg Kelly Miller community Center just before the Clarksburg Black Heritage Festival, at Fairmont State University, at the Morgantown Mutual Aid Fair at First Presbyterian Church, Morgantown, at the WVU Mountainlair with the cooperation of Javier McCoy of the WVU Center for Black Culture. See pictures below.
Exhibit at the Suncrest Methodist Churh, Morgantown
Exhibit at the Kelly Miller Community Center, Clarksburg
Exhibit at Fairmont State University
This took place on Sunday, September 8th, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Marilla Park Pavilion. Al Anderson sang, and Mike Attfield, Cindy O'Brien, Sheila Rye, and Jim Rye provided music. We had poster-size panels of our exhibit on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and copies of our graphic novel for people to review. We also had the NAACP’s voter registration information available.Please bring a dish to share if possible. We will provide drinks.
It was our annual meeting and so it included a very short business meeting at 5:30 to elect members of our steering committee, who serve three-year terms. The current steering committee members: Mike Attfield (chair), Al Anderson (vice chair), Sheila Rye (secretary), Barb Howe (treasurer), Susan Brown, Judy Cohen, Laura Cohen, Tim Hairston, and Mike Sharley, were voted back in. We are also pleased to announce that Bonnie Brown, Eve Faulkes, and Don Spencer joined the steering committee. Some pictures are below.
Mike Attfield, Cindy O'Brien, Sheila Rye, and Jim Rye provided music
The Pavilion at Marilla Park
Posters relaing to the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act
Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement by Emmie Schrader Adams, Elaine DeLott Baker, Joan C. Browning, Dorothy Dawson Burlage, Constance Curry, Theresa Del Pozzo, Casey Hayden, Penelope Patch and Sue Thrasher "is an eloquent and powerful book that takes us into the lives of nine young women who came of age in the 1960s while committing themselves actively and passionately to the struggle for racial equality and justice. These compelling first-person accounts take us back to one of the most tumultuous periods in our nation’s history—to the early days of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Albany Freedom Ride, voter registration drives and lunch counter sit-ins, Freedom Summer, the 1964 Democratic Convention, and the rise of Black Power and the women’s movement. The book delves into the hearts of the women to ask searching questions. Why did they, of all the white women growing up in their hometowns, cross the color line in the days of segregation and join the Southern Freedom Movement? What did they see, do, think, and feel in those uncertain but hopeful days? And how did their experiences shape the rest of their lives?"
One of the authors, Joan Browning (picture on the left), has donated five copies of this book to the CCSJ, One has been donated to the Morgantown city library. The other four are up for sale at $35 each if conveyed by hand or $40 if mailed. If you would like one then reserve it by sending a note to Barb Howe at barbara.howe@mail.wvu.edu. You can pay for it by sending a check to our P.O. box at Box 160, Morgantown 26507-0160. Or you can pay using PayPal. For details on this go to our 'Join Us' page here.
About 50 people attended the exhibit opening at the Morgantown Public Library on July 2nd. Mike Attfield welcomed everyone and talked about CCSJ. Eve Faulkes then presided over the program, which included comments by storytellers John Gaddis talking about John Watson, his father-in-law who was a Tuskegee Airman; former WVU NAACP student chapter president Dayna Pratt; and retired WVU Extension Agent Reita Marks. The Osage Soul & Gospel Choir and Al Anderson sang. We recorded the program, and that recording is available on our website here.
We appreciate the financial support of the City of Morgantown and First Presbyterian Church, Morgantown, for the exhibit. The Morgantown Human Rights Commission and Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP also provided support. Don Spencer and Susan Brown did background research for the exhibit. Joan Browning and Barb Howe were the editors. FirstEnergy Foundation has provided funds to make copies of the graphic novel and then will allow us to sell copies after we have spent their funds.
The exhibit was available on the second floor of the library throughout the month of July.
Eve Faulkes hosted related activities at the Farmers Market Pavilion on Spruce Street for Saturday, July 13, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The goal was to encourage conversations by having people participate in active listening experiences. About 30 people attended that program.
CCSJ member Rich Cohen attended the CPRAB focus group that Megan Gandy conducted with social justice and advocacy organizations to collect opinions about safety and policing in Morgantown and sent this report:
On July 23rd I attended the three-hour focus group together with four other participants: an attorney who represented the Civil Rights Commission; Whole Families, Whole Veterans, a group providing mental health services; and two groups providing services to the unhoused.
The session started with a discussion of one good and one bad experience we have had with the Morgantown Police Department. We were then asked to discuss as a brainstorming exercise seven topics, including 1- Experiences with the MPD; 2-The role of the MPD; 3-Our role; 4-How is the MPD fulfilling and not fulfilling its mission; 5- Recommended changes in MPD; 6-Recommendations in order of priority; 7-What else should have been discussed.
All discussions were to be considered confidential although they were taped, and the participants were referred to solely by an assigned number from 1-5, not by name
I was able to provide information which I acquired as a representative of the Tree of Life Congregation, based on my dealings with MPD in securing security for the Synagogue, as a member of CCSJ and a resident of South Park, and about police training and practices from my work as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Wetzel County and as a Criminal Defense Attorney in Marion and Monongalia Counties.
I can tell you that the consensus is that police training currently does not prepare officers to de-escalate situations nor to deal with homeless, addicted, gay, or trans citizens who need help. Nor to deal with women. Accordingly, the MPD needs help from adequately trained individuals, training of officers needs to change, and MPD needs more money to hire more officers.
CCSJ signed on to a press release June 26 from West Virginia Housing Justice and other organizations anticipating grants pass decision. Morgantown Pride and Project Rainbow also signed on to celebrate the Obergefell v. Hodges anniversary that legalized same sex marriages and caution about the consequences of City of Grants Pass v. Johnson , a case before the US Supreme Court that dealt with punishing homeless people for sleeping in public places.
The release said, “Celebrating marriage equality under a landmark Supreme Court ruling, we now confront a critical threat to those protected by Obergefell. LGBTQI+ individuals, who are disproportionately at risk of homelessness, face potential criminalization of homelessness in Grants Pass, Oregon, in a US Supreme Court decision.” On Friday, June 28, the Court ruled in favor of Grants Pass.
The CCSJ hosted a Social and Environmental Justice gathering on Sunday, April 21st, 2024, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church at 456 Spruce Street in Morgantown. It was a gathering of local social and environmental justice groups, including a pot-luck dinner, followed by a group discussions of various social and environmental justice issues. Groups were invited to bring and display their publicity materials. At the end representatives of the various groups reported on what their group had concluded. We were pleased to welcome two graduate students from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism who were in West Virginia to look at why West Virginia has the lowest percentage of young people who vote.
Thank you to Eve Faulkes and Reverend Zac Morton for facilitating our use of the church rooms and to everyone who contributed to this event, including all who brought food, who attended, and the members of the CCSJ who worked hard to arrange everything.
Below are three pictures of the event, showing the CCSJ table, the discussion groups, and the food.
We were a bronze-level sponsor of the Block Party although we did not attend in person.
Don Spencer, a CCSJ member, gave a presentation at the February 20th, 2024 CCSJ monthly meeting on Zoom. He talked about his social action and civil rights work over the years. An audio recording is available here, and a pdf transcript is here. We sincerely thank Don for all his efforts to make Morgantown a better place!
Duane Nichols', then a CCSJ member, gave a presentation at the January 16th, 2024 CCSJ monthly meeting on Zoom. He talked about his efforts in his youth to promote and fight for civil rights. This was done in Delaware, and included picketing in Wilmington, organizing boycotts, testing restaurants for discrimination, and more. During that time he was arrrested three times. We thank Duane for all of his efforts. Sadly, he recently passed. We shall miss him. A video of his presentation is available on YouTube.
Susan Brown, a long-term member of our group, wrote a letter on behalf of the group that was published in the Dominion Post newspaper on January 14, 2024. It reminded us of the good things that Dr. King had done, including his efforts towards getting the Civil Rights Act published in 1964. The letter can be viewed here.
Please send your web site suggestions to Mike Attfield at mdattfieldo@gmail.com. Please contact any of the steering committee members to volunteer to help and to share your suggestions for our work or e-mail us at ccsjwv@gmail.com. Please send items to share with our membership to Barb Howe at barbara.howe@mail.wvu.edu.
Please also remember to send your dues - $10 for individuals and $25 for organizations – to CCSJ, PO Box 160, Morgantown, WV 26507-0160. You can join or donate by credit card via PayPal on this web site. Go to Join Us.
Please note that CCSJ is a 501 (c) (3) organization and therefore is non-partisan. While we encourage everyone to vote and participate in the political process, we do not endorse candidates, provide a forum for candidates to campaign, or publicize partisan political statements.
FIND US ON FACEBOOK! Just look for “Community Coalition for Social Justice” under “Groups” and become our friend. Thanks to Mike Sharley for being our group “leader.”