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A mystery to be solved.
Why is it, the colored citizens are never
missed by the assessors, and are always
found by the Sheriffs, to pay taxes,
and are never found to act as jurors?
                                     - J. R. Clifford
 

North Fork Watershed Project
Cultural, Historical and Tourism Awareness Seminar
Thomas, West Virginia - April 2003
 
   
  In April 2002, Emily Samargo joined Friends of Blackwater as an Office of Surface Mining Vista Volunteer for the Northfork Watershed Project. The Project's mission is to combine the historic preservation of the Blackwater industrial complex with cleaning up water pollution in the Northfork of the Blackwater River. In the summer of 2003, the Northfork Watershed Project was granted funding from the West Virginia Humanities Council to coordinate a history seminar bringing together scholars with expertise in the Blackwater region. Attending this seminar were Cindy Phillips, John Calabrese, Judy Rodd, Connie Rice, Rachelle Davis, Ruth Brinker, Rob Whetsell and Mike Caplinger.  

 

 Connie Rice, Doctoral Candidate at WVU, presented her latest research on J.R. Clifford and other historic personalities from Coketon during a meeting sponsored by the WV Humanities Council. In 1898 J.R. Clifford, a black lawyer, won a landmark case against the Tucker County Board of Education when the WV Supreme Court ruled that discrimination against the black school in Coketon was illegal. He represented Carrie Williams, a teacher for the Negro School.
 

After the history seminar, Marshall Leo from the Department of Environmental Protection took the group on a tour along the proposed historic railroad trail.

  

Mike Caplinger

 

Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater, hosted a symposium at the Visioning Blackwater Canyon National Park Conference in September 2004, which included the proposed historic railroad trail as a major topic of discussion.