Published for the Members and Friends IN THIS ISSUE: of the Harpers Ferry August 18, 19 & 20 Historical Association Niagara Movement Summer 2006 Commemoration Events Niagara Academic Symposium 1906 - 2006 2006 Park Schedule The Niagara Movement Commemoration of Events at Harpers Ferry The History In August 1906, a momentous event took place on the Storer College Campus in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Little-known and not frequently mentioned in history books, this event and its signifi- cance reached far into the new century to lay the groundwork for the formation of the NAACP and the Civil Rights Movement. The Niagara Convention held its first public meeting in the United States on August 15 - 19, 1906 on the campus of Storer College. This August, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park will commemorate the 100th anniversary of this his- toric meeting with a week of activities of Niagarites adopted a constitution and by- Delegates to the Second celebration, inspiration and remembrance. laws, established committees, and wrote the Niagara Movement This event is being hosted by Harpers Ferry “Declaration of Principles” outlining the Conference pose in front of NHP and co-sponsored by the Jefferson future for African Americans. They planned Anthony Hall on the Storer County Branch of the NAACP and the for annual conferences in locations that had College campus on August 17, Harpers Ferry Historical Association. significance to the freedom struggle. 1906 (Harpers Ferry National With failed Reconstruction, the Su- Thirteen months later, they chose Historical Park). preme Court’s separate but equal doctrine, Harpers Ferry as their meeting place. Be- and Booker T. Washington’s accommoda- cause of its scenic beauty, and because John tionist policies, the outlook for full civil Brown had become a symbol of freedom rights for African Americans was bleak at after his 1859 raid on the U.S. Armory and the beginning of the twentieth century. In Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, it was an ideal The picture which appears 1905 W. E. B. Du Bois drafted a call for place to meet. Storer College, for 25 years on our newsletter’s nameplate, “organized determination and aggressive the only school in West Virginia that of- dating from 1803, is one of the oldest prints of Harpers Ferry. action on the part of men who believed in fered African Americans an education Twenty years earlier, in 1783, Negro freedom and growth.” He gathered beyond the primary level, provided a perfect Thomas Jefferson had declared together a group of men with the hope of setting. that this view was “worth a meeting in Buffalo, New York. When re- Among the goals of the movement were voyage across the Atlantic.” fused hotel rooms, they migrated across the freedom of speech and suffrage; they wanted border to Canada and the 29 men met at improved educational facilities, and integra- the Erie Beach Hotel in Ontario. These first continued on page 2 1 Recent Donations: Niagara Commemoration grades K - 12. Two thousand copies will be All-in-One Tours & Continued from Page 1 distributed to local, state, tri-state and urban Cruises, LLC tion of all public facilities. They demanded schools. The guide is in CD Rom format Lancaster, PA that the Constitution be enforced equally with an instructional booklet. It consists of Harvey J. Blumenthal and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- background information, lesson plans and Tulsa, OK ments be observed. activities for weeklong study, and conforms Guy Cranfill The Niagrites arrived in Harpers Ferry to state and national standards of learning. Martinsburg, WV with passion in their hearts and high hopes This guide has been funded in part by the Heckler & Koch Defense, that their voices would be heard and action West Virginia Humanities Council and a Inc., Sterling, VA would result. Following the Harpers Ferry National Park Service Parks as Classroom John C. Frye conference, the Niagara Movement held grant. Hagerstown, MD Jefferson County Historical three more meetings. Local chapters in Society, Jefferson County, larger cities continued fighting segregation. Academic Symposium - The Academic WV Ultimately, as the first African-American Symposium is scheduled to begin Wednes- Kay Kenney group to protest racial oppression, the day, August 16 at 9:00 a.m. and run until Martinsburg, WV Niagara Movement paved the way for stron- Friday, August 18 at 12:30 p.m. The sympo- Michelle and Patrick King ger groups to carry on. sium will be held in the same buildings that Shenandoah Jct., WV hosted the Niagara Movement 100 years Rita Mihalik The Event ago. Fourteen papers representing original Harpers Ferry, WV Teacher Institute - The centennial event research about the Niagara Movement, the PNGI Charles Town Gam- will begin on Monday, August 14 with a men and women involved and the legacy of ing, LLC, Charles Town, Teacher Institute designed to instruct edu- the movement will be presented. WV cators in the use of the newly-developed Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Niagara Educator’s Guide. A significant and Harvard University, will speak Thursday Niagara Centennial lasting feature of the commemoration, the morning. Dr. Higginbotham’s research and Donations: curriculum guide is designed for use with continued on next page Bank of Charles Town, Charles Town, WV Blacks in Government / Equal Employment Op- Papers Being Presented at the Academic Symposium portunity, McLean, VA • Scot French, The Carter G. Woodson • John H. Spiers, III, Clemson University, Harpers Ferry Historic Town Institute for African-American and Afri- “The Burden of Black Women: The Foundation, Harpers can Studies,“John Brown’s Place in Niagara Gendered Leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois Ferry, WV Movement Iconography” during the Niagara Movement” Town of Harpers Ferry • Ron Armstead, Executive Director, Con- • Connie Park Rice, West Virginia Univer- Harpers Ferry, WV gressional Black Caucus Veterans sity, “J. R. Clifford, His Life and Legacy” Jefferson County Black Braintrust, “The 19th Century Origins of the • Thomas Rodd, Esq. and Justice Larry V. History Preservation Civil Rights Movement: Connecting African Starcher, West Virginia Supreme Court Society, Jefferson County, Americans and Civil War History” of Appeals, “John Robert Clifford of West WV • Dr. Shawn Alexander, Yale University, Virginia—A Niagara Pioneer Speaks to the Jefferson County Chapter, “It is Strike NOW or NEVER”: The Afro- 21st Century” NAACP, Jefferson American Council and the Origins of the • Anita Lambert, Great-granddaughter of County, WV Niagara Movement” Freeman H. M. Murray, one of the Jefferson County Commis- • Dr. David F. Godshalk, Shippensburg Niagara organizers, “Freeman H. M. sion, Jefferson County, University, “Voicing Black Manliness: Murray” WV Georgia’s ‘New Negro Men’ and the • Barbara Nevergold, University of Buffalo, Stephen T. Mather Training Niagara Movement” “From Pan Am Protests to the Niagara Center, Harpers Ferry, • Dr. Blair L.M. Kelley, North Carolina Movement: The Buffalo Connection” WV State University, “Appeal to the Masses: • Dr. Robert W. Williams, Bennett Col- Allan Spears The Niagara Movement and the Popular lege, “Politics, Rights and Spatiality in National Parks Conserva- Efforts to Halt Segregation” W. E. B. Du Bois’ 1906 ‘Address to the tion Assn., Washington, • Connie Park Rice, West Virginia Univer- Country’” DC sity, “Pioneer Women: The ‘Ladies’of the • Dr. Mark A. Thomas, La Salle Univer- continued on opposite page Niagara Movement” sity, “From Plessy to Brown and Beyond: • Kami Fletcher, Texas Woman’s Univer- The Niagara Movement’s Impact on Value 2 sity, “The Invitation Was Lost in the Mail” Transformation in Supreme Court Deci- sions” The “World Famous Count Basie Orchestra” performs on Saturday evening, August 19, at 7:00 p.m. Niagara Centennial and features an original score commissioned especially for the Niagara Centennial. Donations (cont’d): The Park Foundation writing focuses on African American welcome and keynote address by Dr. David New York, NY women in the 19th and 20th centuries. She is Levering Lewis, Professor of History at NYU PNGI Charles Town Gam- the author of Righteous Discontent: The and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author ing, LLC, Charles Town, Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist of W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race. His WV Church: 1880 - 1920 and co-editor of Afri- address will be followed by the “Cornerstone Jane Tabb Kearneysville, WV can American Lives. Dr. David Levering Program: A Battle for All Americans” pre- West Virginia Humanities Lewis, a distinguished Du Bois scholar, will sented by young people. Council, Charleston, WV deliver the final remarks at the symposium. At 12:30 p.m. actor Fred Morsell will West Virginia Division of Dr. Lewis has twice been awarded the perform “Reverdy C. Ransom and the Spirit Tourism, Charleston, WV Pulitzer Prize for his two-volume biography of John Brown,” in a first-person portrayal. West Virginia State Confer- of Niagara founder W.E.B. Du Bois. The audience then may enjoy an hour-long ence NAACP Branches Attendees will also be treated to the re- gospel concert by the spiritual pioneers of enactment of “J. R. Clifford and the Carrie song, “The Dixie Hummingbirds.” Also at Blues Concert Silent Williams Case” on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram will give a Auction Contributors 4:00 p.m., and to a reception at the Park talk on Rev. John William Dungy at Curtis We thank the following Bookshop during a free Thursday evening in Freewill Baptist Church. Dungy was a great Harpers Ferry businesses the Lower Town. fundraiser for Storer College. for their donations: The highlight of the remainder of the Angler’s Inn Weekend Main Event afternoon will be an insightful panel discus- Grape Expectations Friday, August 18 sion “The Problem of the Twentieth Century Harpers Ferry Books The public weekend event kicks off with will be the Problem of the Color Line: Breaking Harpers Ferry Guesthouse tents opening on the campus Friday at 5:00 Barriers in America,” featuring famous Afri- The Herb Lady p.m.