The African American Experience of Struggle and Achievement in West Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands
Their Stories Were Here All Along. For more than a century, African American workers, families, and leaders helped build the towns and industries of the Allegheny Highlands. This project is bringing their history home.
From the late 19th century through the Civil Rights era, African American workers and families helped build the Allegheny Highlands. They labored in coal mines, on railroads, in timber operations, and in the towns that grew up around them. Their contributions shaped the region's economy and culture, yet their stories have largely gone untold.
The Allegheny Highlands Black History Project is a National Park Service–funded public history initiative working to change that. Through archival research, field surveys, oral history interviews, and community engagement, we are uncovering and preserving the legacy of Black communities across Tucker, Randolph, Pocahontas, Grant, and Mineral counties in West Virginia.
This is a story of resilience, achievement, and belonging. It deserves to be told.
Join Friends of Blackwater and Aurora Research Associates for a special public history program exploring The African American Experience of Struggle and Achievement in West Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands. This free, family-friendly event brings together leading West Virginia scholars to share powerful stories of resilience, culture, and community rooted in the region’s industrial past.
Held on Saturday, August 7, 2026 from 4:00–5:00 PM at the South Branch Inn in Moorefield, WV, the program will feature keynote speaker Dr. Cicero M. Fain III, author of Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story, and featured speaker Dr. Tamara Denmark Bailey, Assistant Professor of History at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Attendees will experience a virtual tour of significant Black history sites across the Allegheny Highlands and hear selections from oral history interviews that bring these stories to life. The program will conclude with an informal reception, offering an opportunity to connect and continue the conversation.
Travel assistance scholarships are available for students, teachers, and community members. All are welcome to attend and engage with this important and often overlooked chapter of West Virginia’s history.
Join Us to Experience the Story
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Assistant Professor of History, West Virginia Wesleyan College
Assistant Provost of Access & Opportunity, Marshall University Author of Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story.
What We Do
Friends of Blackwater and Aurora Research Associates combine historical research with community-centered engagement. We search archives and previously undocumented sources to recover records of Black life in the region. We identify and survey historic sites tied to African American communities, including churches, schools, homes, and workplaces. We record oral history interviews with descendants and community members, preserving first-person accounts before they are lost. And we share our findings through public programs, digital resources, and reports designed to reach scholars, educators, and community members alike.
The J.R. Clifford Project works across four areas:
Historic Research: Combing through archives and uncovering sources that shed new light on African American life in the Allegheny Highlands.
Site Surveys: Identifying and documenting significant historic places connected to Black communities across the five-county region.
Oral History: Recording interviews with descendants and community members to preserve living memory and family knowledge.
Public Sharing: Delivering findings through reports, digital resources, and public programming open to everyone.
Why It Matters
For generations, the contributions of African Americans in the Allegheny Highlands were left out of the region's official history. The mines, railroads, and towns they helped build tell only part of the story. The human story behind that labor has been largely invisible.
This project is part of a broader national effort to ensure that whose history gets told, preserved, and honored is a question answered honestly. By documenting these communities now, through research, oral history, and site preservation, we give future generations access to a fuller and more accurate picture of Appalachian and American history.
Do you have family ties to the Allegheny Highlands? Stories, photographs, or documents connected to African American communities in the region? We want to hear from you. Community knowledge is at the heart of this project. Get in Touch!
Project Sponsor: This project is sponsored by the J.R. Clifford Project and Friends of Blackwater, Inc. Friends of Blackwater is a non-profit organization…..Friends of Blackwater works to protect and promote natural beauty, diverse creatures, unique heritage, and the outdoor recreation economy in the Mid-Atlantic Allegheny Highlands.
Project Consultant: Aurora Research Associates, LLC is a cultural resource consulting firm specializing in historic preservation and cultural resource review services. Since 2011, ARA has conducted architectural surveys, archaeological investigations, National Register of Historic Places nominations, heritage education, and related services throughout West Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.
The activity that is the subject of this program has been financed in part with Federal funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior.