PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
Friends of Blackwater
501 Elizabeth Street-Charleston, WV 25311-304-345-7663-fax 304-345-3240
www.jrclifford.org-jrcliffordproject@saveblackwater.org
EVENT: Public Community Forum on J. R. Clifford
DATE:Thursday, November 6, 2008
TIME: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
LOCATION:Building 7, Capitol Complex, Second Floor Capitol Room
Light refreshments provided.
Please RSVP to Julie Palas at 304-345-7663 (office), 304-549-5406 (cell), or jrcliffordproject@saveblackwater.org.
WE NEED YOU!
You are invited, along with other local and state leaders, to attend a public community forum on the life and work of John Robert “J. R.” Clifford, West Virginia's first African American attorney and civil rights pioneer, highlighting one of his most inspiring cases before the West Virginia Supreme Court, Carrie Williams vs. The Tucker County Board of Education.
Up til now, this historically relevant story in West Virginia's history has not been taught in our schools.
However, through thoughtful research and determination, a dedicated group of state historians, academics, judicial personnel, and interested citizens, the creation of such curriculum and materials is now available for our 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. Our goal is to make J. R. Clifford's story available to all middle and high school students in the state. Final editing is now being completed and teacher training will be available before the curriculum is distributed statewide.
This is where your cooperation and participation is needed. It would be wonderful if you could attend the community forum on November 6 to share your knowledge and suggestions on how to extend the curriculum into all middle and high schools in the state and expand interest in a true WV civil rights activist. We will have the curriculum available for your review at the forum and provide plenty of background information about J. R. Clifford's life and work. Everyone's input is value.
Please extend this invitation to anyone you think might be interested in learning more or to assist in creating a network of pivotal people around the state to incorporate the inspiring story of J. R. Clifford's important contributions into the historical knowledge base of all West Virginians.
FYI -- The West Virginia Humanities Council also awarded Friends of Blackwater a grant to provide school presentations around the state. On November 6, not only will Justice Larry Starcher and Charleston attorney Kitty Dooley be attending the Community Forum from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., but they will also be presenting a comprehensive look at J. R. Clifford and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement through an inspiring power point presentation and interactive mini-reenactment of one of his most notorious cases at Riverside High School in Belle and Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley. Please contact us if you are interested in attending one or both of those presentations and we will make the arrangements for you. Let us know where else we might put on such a presentation . . . at a church, community center or to a civic group.
On behalf of all of us at Friends of Blackwater, we look forward to seeing you on November. 6. Please RSVP to Julie Palas at 304-345-7663 (office), 304-549-5406 (cell) or jrcliffordproject@saveblackwater.org. Additional background information is available for your review on the back of this invitation.
Background Information about the J.R. Clifford Project –
School Visits, Curriculum and Community Forums
The sponsoring group is Friends of Blackwater ("FOB"), a 501c(3) organization that conducts heritage education and community and environmental preservation programs. FOB's strategic approach in its programs includes promoting community and regional pride through research, documentation, and education about historic West Virginia heroes and role models. These programs break down boundaries between people and develop a shared positive vision of the past and future -- as an inspiration to work together for progress together, today. The J.R. Clifford Project is such a program.
The goal of the project is to help reclaim and expand the history of J.R. Clifford and his courageous resistance to oppression, and bring it to a wider West Virginia audience. The central message of the Clifford story is found in a civil rights case presented to the West Virginia Supreme Court in the 1896, Carrie Williams vs. The Tucker County Board of Education.
The story of Clifford's successful defense of teacher Carrie Williams wanting her students to receive an equivalent education as the white students proved to be a powerful vehicle for education and inspiration in West Virginia about how ordinary people can challenge racism through courage, persistence, and struggle. We want to create, put in place, and implement the mechanisms that will see that this story and this message is given to every school child in West Virginia, on an ongoing and sustainable basis.
The J.R. Clifford Project has created and carried out sixteen highly successful community programs, and related seminars and publications across West Virginia, focusing on the life, work, and era of J.R. Clifford. These programs have had very substantial public involvement - over one thousand direct participants, and more than three thousand direct audience members. More than fifteen thousand high-quality historical compendia have been distributed that illustrate Clifford's life and legacy. A website on Clifford's life (www.jrclifford.org) contains some of the most comprehensive materials on West Virginia's civil rights history.
In the educational sphere, parent, teacher, and student participants in these programs have repeatedly expressed a desire for professionally designed curricular materials relating to Clifford and his story. The Project made hour-long workshop presentations at two statewide social studies programs for public school teachers in Charleston, in 2006 and 2007, using historical source materials and "mini-dramas" involving a short courtroom script taken from Clifford's most famous case. The response to these presentations from teachers was very favorable.
Because of this demand, the J.R. Clifford Project has turned its attention to creating a curriculum around Clifford and his times and the principles his life embodied. The curriculum package will include lesson plans, multi-media cds, and a related website, and will have materials designed specifically for middle school and high school levels. This hi-tech tool will make materials about Clifford and his era available for teachers of West Virginia Studies and history across the state. This will include source documents and lesson plans. Additional materials will supplement the curriculum if funding is found. Because a curriculum is of no use sitting on a shelf, a key element of our work will be to build awareness and support for its use in communities around the state. This is the purpose of our series for community and school programs.
Since 2004, the J.R. Clifford Project has brought together thousands of West Virginians, in engaging and challenging community programs, examining the roots and reality of racism, and the history of civil rights struggles in the Mountain State. Our most recent community program, in October 2007 at Marshall University, (a full house!) yielded a full-length video that Marshall University produced. Five noted historians spoke at a public symposium on West Virginia's civil rights history as part of the day's events. And on September 13, 2007, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin proclaimed "J.R. Clifford Day," at a ceremony attended by Project members and the statewide and local NAACP.
The J. R. Clifford Project partners with Mountain State Bar Association, American History Project at Resa III, West Virginia University, West Virginia Supreme Court, and Kanawha County Chapter of the NAACP; networking with the WV Department of Education, WV Center for Professional Development and Appalachian Heritage Area. -- END