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CCSJ News, Activities, and Events

Events are typically updated at the beginning of each month. See also Local News, WVU NewsRegional News, and Calendar

CCSJ MEETINGS

Our monthly meetings are held via Zoom at present and generally occur every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. 

Our next CCSJ meeting will be on Zoom on Tuesday, March 19th, at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome. 

We are pleased to announce that Barb Howe will share information on some of West Virginia’s pioneering women politicians.

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CCSJ At Black Policy Day
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Eve Faulkes represented us and the West Virginia Coalition for Truth in History at Black Policy Day on February 7th at the West Virginia Capitol. Here she is with Jean Evansmore (see attached PDF). There is information about our proposed exhibit on the table.

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

We are still awaiting word on funding from the City for our exhibit, but Eve is working on designing a graphic novel to be part of the exhibit that will include stories of people from around the state, including Monongalia County residents like Charlene and Rogers Marshall, who were denied a membership at The Flame restaurant downtown; Osage “Mayor” Al Anderson; and younger activists like WVU NAACP Student Chapter officers Dayna Pratt, Sierra Velez, and Suraya Boggs.

Don Spencer's Presentation

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' Presentation
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Duane Nichols', 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 both then and continuing to the present day, including his current support of the CCSJ. A video of his presentation is available on YouTube.

MLK Jr. Day letter to the Dominion Post

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.

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

We have submitted an application to the City of Morgantown for funding for an exhibit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act was signed on July 2, 1964, so, if funded, we plan to open our exhibit at the Morgantown Public Library with a reception on July 2, 2024, with the exhibit available on the second floor of the library through the month of July. Among other things, this act ended segregation in places of public accommodation like Morgantown’s Metropolitan Theatre. We appreciate the cooperation of Eve Faulkes, who has volunteered to design the exhibit; Sarah Palfrey, director of the Morgantown Public Library; and the Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP and Morgantown Human Rights Commission, both of whom have agreed to provide support with publicity if funded. We will not likely get an official notice on our funding until May.

Eve Faulkes has received funding from First Presbyterian Church to produce posters and hold events related to the exhibit. She will also have a table at Black Policy Day in Charleston on February 7th (see below for more information) and plans to make contacts for stories related to the exhibit and posters.

CCSJ hosts pot-luck gathering for social and environmental justice groups
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The CCSJ hosted a Social and Environmental Justice gathering on Sunday, November 5th, 2023, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church at 456 Spruce Street in Morgantown. Thank you to everyone who attended. It was a celebration of what all that we have achieved in social and environmental justice over the years followed by a panel discussion of how we can work together so that our achievements are not nullified in the future. It started at with pot-luck meal with food brought by the 50 or more participants from a variety of local social and environmental justice groups. At 6:00 p.m. we had a panel who gave a short talk about their achievements and current actions and missions. The panelists were Judy Ball (Morgantown-Monongalia County League of Women Voters), John Bolt (West Virginia Coalition for Truth in History), Nicole Lauffer (Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP), Jim Kotcon (Sierra Club), and Rev. Zac Morton (Greater Morgantown Interfaith Association). The Rev. Jenny Williams (ACLU-West Virginia) was unable to attend at the last minute. Barb Howe moderated the panel for the CCSJ. 

Thank you to Eve Faulkes and Reverend Morton for facilitating our use of the church rooms and to Sharon Brinkman-Windle, who provided desserts even though she could not attend. We had extra pizzas that we were able to donate to the Community Kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church.

Below are three pictures of the event, showing members of the panel (First and third) and the food tables (middle).  

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We wish to thank everyone who contributed to this event: the Presbyterian church, the panel members, all who brought food, who attended, and the members of the CCSJ who worked hard to arrange everything.

CCSJ SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FAIR was SEPTEMBER 17TH, 2023

Thank you to those who came out for our fair and, especially to the groups who set up tables. This was the first day of WVU’s Diversity Week, and we appreciated the assistance of Anne Kerns, special events coordinator for the WVU Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in publicizing our event and encouraging the WVU community to attend.

Steel Away of the CB Drum Studio, the Morgantown-based steel drum band, gave a very popular concert, and Al Anderson sang for us. We welcomed two of Morgantown’s City Ambassadors and met representatives from the local public defender’s office.

Unfortunately we had to cut the event a bit short because the weather did not cooperate. WBOY News came and interviewed Mike Attfield. Their report, including a video can be seen here.

The following groups participated:
Greater Morgantown Interfaith Association
League of Women Voters of Morgantown/Monongalia County
Morgantown City Ambassadors
Morgantown Human Rights Commission
Morgantown NOW
Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP
Quakers
Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center
WVU Center for Black Culture
WVU Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
WVU Native American Studies Program

We appreciate the financial support of the City of Morgantown and FirstEnergy Foundation for this event. We were able to use some of the funding from the FirstEnergy Foundation to purchase a new CCSJ feather flag, table covering, and table runner (see PDF for the photo) so we will be more visible at future events, and we especially thank Eve Faulkes for her assistance in designing and ordering these items.

CCSJ PowerPoint Review TO MORGANTOWN CITY COUNCIL

Mike Attfield prepared a short “history/review” of our work over the years for his presentation to City Council on Tuesday, August 29th, 2023. The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.

CCSJ Supported Native American Studies Program Forum in October 2023

We voted to support the program entitled “This Land Was Always Loved” with $400 from the funding we received from Duane Nichols and Sue Miles. Further information is provided here.

Library books for BOPARC

CCSJ thanks Duane Nichols and Sue Miles for a donation of $2000 to purchase social justice-related books for BOPARC’s summer program. We have purchased 75 books to be distributed to 1st and 2nd graders, 3rd and 4th graders, and 5th and 6th graders, with 25 books for each group.

The titles we purchased were How Not to Start Third Grade by Cathy Hapka and Eileen Titlebaum (Random House Children’s Books); Same Sun Here by Neela Vaswani and Silas House (Candlewick TP Press), and A Skunk in my Bunk! By Christopher Cerf (Random House Children’s Books).

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Susan Brown and Lee Petsonk delivered the books to Louisa Mae at the Wiles Hill Community Center/BOPARC office on July 25, 2023. Lee took the photos below showing Louisa in the left photo below and Louisa and Susan in the right photo below. Susan said that BOPARC was very appreciative of our donation and gave the books to the campers in the “Arts in the Park” program at the Wiles Hill Community Center during the week of July 24. There were a few extra books, which we are donating to the Shack Neighborhood House.

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CCSJ Recognizes Juneteenth

Susan Brown, a member of the CCSJ steering committee, had a letter to the editor about Juneteenth in the Sunday, June 18th, 2023, issue of the Dominion Post.

BOOK LISTS UPDATED

We have updated our lists of books at the Morgantown Public Library system that focus on social justice topics. These are available on the Resources page of this website.

SUGGESTIONS, ASSISTANCE, AND DONATIONS

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.”