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.
Next CCSJ Meeting is Tuesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome.
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The CCSJ was at the Pride Day event at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park on June 14. We had a table and posters featuring our Civil Rights exhibit. We sold copies of West Virginians’ Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along We also had “Coexist” and other bumper stickers for sale. The event was well attended and featured booths from many different organizations, as well as music, drag shows, food trucks, and family-friendly activities.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed on August 6, 1965. We will celebrate that event on August 7th at 6:00 p.m. at the Morgantown Public Library, 373 Spruce Street. Ilene Evans will portray Coralie Franklin Cook (1861-1942), a descendant of those enslaved at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. According to the Monticello website, “In 1880, Coralie Franklin graduated from Storer College in Harpers Ferry, WV. From this time, she was widely noted as a powerful public speaker. She taught elocution and English at Storer and then at Howard University.
“In 1898 she married George William Cook (1855-1931), a Howard University professor and trustee. Coralie Cook served for twelve years as a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education. She was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women and a committed suffragist. About 1910, the Cooks became followers of the Baha’i faith. A longtime friend and admirer of Susan B. Anthony, she eventually became disillusioned by the women’s suffrage movement, feeling it had ‘turned its back on the woman of color’” (https://gettingword.monticello.org/people/coralie-franklin-cook/).
We will also have an exhibit based on the Voting Rights Act, including a panel on the dramatic story of West Virginia’s ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that granted suffrage to women (well, to almost all women – come to the exhibit to see who gets left out).
Although we did not get new funding from the City of Morgantown this year, we are authorized to spend $1499.72 that we did not use in previous authorizations to support this program, and we appreciate that opportunity.
This took place on Monday, January 20th at 2:00 p.m. via a Zoom celebration entitled Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as Remembered by Storytellers in the graphic novel, West Virginians' Experiences in Civil Rights with the co-operation of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at WVU. Eve Faulkes and Mike Attfield organized the program that featured interviews with Ron English, Joan Browning, Al Anderson, Don Spencer, and Sierra Velez, all of whom are featured in our book (see below). Al also sang a song. The main feature of the event was a movie that included pages from the book and the interviews. That video is available on YouTube. The full video of the OLLI event is here.
The Morgantown local paper, the Dominion Post, featured an article on January 12, 2025, concerning Joan Browning, one of the Civil Rights activists included in our book and the 2025 CCSJ Martin Luther King Jr. celebration event. It told of her history and achievements in striving for a better world, a task that landed her in jail multiple times. She has helped compile the stories of West Virginians involved in the Civil Rights Movement that are included in the book (see below). The Dominion Post story can be viewed here. That issue of the paper also included an op-ed article by Joan. You can read it here.
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. Go here to see information about purchasing it, including purchasing via Paypal, Amazon, and Kindle.
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.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Our book was on display on the Black Voter Impact Initiative table at an event at that library on February 13. Dr. Shanequa Smith of the Black Voter Impact Initiative told us that she received about 45 of the 350 books that the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation funded for Westside Together and had been distributing them at Black History Month events and elsewhere. She told us that she had to ration them because people wanted more copies than she could provide and that Westside Together had already distributed all its copies.
Joan Browning and Eve Faulkes participated in a “Let’s Talk” program at the Kanawha County Public Library on February 24 that included 19 people from a variety of organizations in the Charleston area. They passed out copies of the West Virginia Humanities Council version of our book.
She and Joan Browning attended The Sandbox Project in Battle Creek, Michigan, on March 14-16, where Joan was one of the speakers. Eve and Joan passed out copies of our book to people from Michigan, Illinois, California, and Washington, DC. The goal of that project was to hope that "white and white identifying kids can find inspiring and tempering stories of historic people/groups who look like them resisting white supremacy and advancing racial justice."
We have sent a display copy and postcards with a QR code for orders to the Grave Creek Archaeological Complex in Moundsville for its gift shop.
We have sent 900 postcards to the Appalachian Studies Association to include in the “swag bags” or put out on tables at that conference at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennesee, this month. Eve Faulkes designed the card with a QR code for easy ordering and included the back cover “blurb” from Dr. Wilburn Hayden, a long-time important member of the association and editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies ’s special issue on Black Appalachia. We appreciate the support of Mary Thomas, executive director of the association, for her assistance with this outreach.
You can support local businesses and buy the book at:
Appalachian Gallery, 270 Walnut Street, Morgantown. The phone number is 304-296-0163. The store is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Barnes & Noble, 3000 University Town Centre Dr., Morgantown. phone: 304-599-1294. The store is open Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m and from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Terra Cafe, 4325 Industrial Avene, Star City. phone: 304-554-2233. The cafe is open Monday-Wednesday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Thursday-Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The book also is available on Amazon as both paperback ($15) and Kindle ($8) versions. The easiest way to find it is to type “Eve Faulkes” in the Amazon search engine.
If you buy the book on Amazon, you may be able to leave a review. Go to Amazon.com, search for Eve Faulkes to bring up the book title. Then go to the bottom of the page where it says “Review this product” in the lower left corner. Here are the guidelines: “Only customers who have spent at least $50 on Amazon in the last 12 months can submit ratings and reviews. [But you do not have to have purchased our book through Amazon.]
“Before posting a review, we check if it meets our Community Guidelines. That includes our rules against creating, editing, and removing reviews in exchange for compensation.
“We check if the reviewer bought or used (e.g., streamed) the item on Amazon and paid a price available to most Amazon shoppers. If we confirm both, we label the review with Verified Purchase. Reviews without this label can also be helpful. For example, a customer buys an item from a different company, but wants to share their opinion on Amazon.”
We have completed our grant requirements for the $2,000 mini-grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council and submitted our final report. We were honored that the council included our book as the “Grantee Spotlight” in the winter 2024-2025 issue of its People and Mountains newsletter.
We have distributed almost all of the 250 books funded through the West Virginia Humanities Council with the latest distribution of 30 to the WVU Center for Black Culture. At last count, we have sent books to 12 academic libraries in West Virginia and 1 in Maryland; 4 faith-based groups in the Charleston area, 17 museums in West Virginia and 1 in Maryland; 5 other academic units in West Virginia; 53 public libraries, including 2 in Maryland; 6 K-12 schools, including 1 in Tennessee; and 15 other groups, including social justice and civil rights groups, in about 30 corners, literally from Hancock to Mercer and Jefferson to Mason and Mingo.
It is important to note that “ This project [our reprint] is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the official state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.”
We still have “seconds” of the book from a printing with a graphics error that we can make available for free to groups that can use multiple copies, like for a class. In February we sent class sets to Keyser Middle School and Marlinton Middle School.
Students at the Marlinton Middle School are using the book for class projects, thanks to their teacher Peggy Owens, the teacher and photographer who sent us the photos below of her granddaughter Diamond Owen with her first-place exhibit at the school’s social studies fair and of a fifth-grader with a Freedom Rides poster. Joan Browning will be meeting with the fifth graders to share her experiences as a Freedom Rider. See below.
Maliyah Owens reading the graphics novel
Diamond Owens reading the graphics novel
Display at the Marlinton Middle School Social Studies Fair exhibit
Tim Hairston distributed copies of our book at the West Virginia Human Rights Commission’s Fair Housing event on April 17th.
We plan to have a table at Morgantown PRIDE’s Block Party from noon to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 14th, at the Morgantown Riverfront Park. We will have the posters of the exhibit panels and copies of our book to sell there.
We appreciate the assistance of the League of Women Voters and Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP in publicizing the book.
This took place on Sunday, September 8th, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Marilla Park Pavilion. Al Anderson sang (see video here), 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 West Virginians’ Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along for people to review. We also had the NAACP’s voter registration information available.
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.
We were pleased to meet Ashley Swanson, secretary of the Morgantown Human Rights Commission, at the picnic.
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
The exhibit display at the Morgantown Public Library
The poster for the exhibit
People attending the event
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.
If you would like to know more about the exhibit and the graphic novel (see below) there is a video available of Eve Faulkes discussing both during a recent Dismantling Racism meeting. You can see it using this link. The password is pE%$a5nK.
Eve Faulkes hosted activities at the Farmers Market Pavilion on Spruce Street on Saturday, July 13 involving the Civil Rights exhibit material. The goal was to encourage conversations by having people participate in active listening experiences. About 30 people attended that program. 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 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 September Morgantown Arts Walk, 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, at the Scotts Run Fair on September 21, at the First Baptist Church in Charleston, and at Marshall University.
The exhibit was at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling from October 22nd through October 29th Eve gave a presentation about the exhibit and our book at the library on Tuesday, October 29th. There is a news report concerning the exhibit and its tour around West Virginia on the WOWK TV web page here.
Eve Faulkes represented us at Black Policy Day at the capitol in Charleston on March 10th 2025 and distributed copies of the West Virginia Humanities Council version of our book and postcards with a QR code for those who might want to order it later.
The posters of our exhibit panels are on display in WVU’s Chitwood Hall, the home of the history department, thanks to Dr. Melissa Bingmann. The posters are half the size of the exhibit panels and do not have the “books” with additional information on some of the people featured in the exhibit.
Our exhibit is now at the library of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg. If you are interested in hosting the 6-panel exhibit at a library, museum, or other public site, please contact Eve Faulkes at faulkeseve@gmail.com . It “travels” in the back of her car.
Below are pictures from the various exhibitions that have taken place since the initial celebration in Morgantown.
The posters of our exhibit panels are half the size of the exhibit panels and do not have the “books” with additional information on some of the people featured in the exhibit.
If you are interested in hosting the 6-panel exhibit or the posters at a library, museum, or other public site, please contact Eve Faulkes at faulkeseve@gmail.com . It “travels” in the back of her car.
A poster at the Farmers Market event in Morgantown
Exhibit at the Suncrest United Methodist Church in Morgantown
Exhibit at the Kelly Miller Community Center, Clarksburg with James Griffin, chair of the board of the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival
Exhibit at Fairmont State University
Poster at the September Morgantown Arts Walk
The book in the Kanawha County Public Library
Bonnie Brown and Clancy Wells with exhibit at the Scotts Run Fair
Exhibit at the First Baptist Church, Charleston
Exhibit at Marshall University
Janie Claytor-Woodson and Eve Faulkes at the Black Policy Day at Charleston
Exhibit at the Black Policy Day, Charleston
Exhibit at the Black Policy Day, Charleston
Display in WVU’s Chitwood Hall,This photo shows one of the exhibit panels with the open “books.”
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.
We were a bronze-level sponsor of the 2024 Block Party although we did not attend in person.
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.”