Friends of Blackwater Records of the J.R. Clifford Project
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4564
Collection documents the Friends of Blackwater’s project to highlight the life and career of J.R. Clifford, a Black West Virginia lawyer and newspaper owner. It includes play scripts, programs, flyers, book marks, social studies lesson plans, press releases and press coverage, and photographs. Project administrative materials (mostly Box 4 and some in Box 8) include contracts and agreements, grant applications, correspondence, tax exempt status documents, funding, personnel matters, planning and programming logistics including ticket sales and contact lists.
Two specific projects were two dramatic performances written by Tom Rodd. Both featured local talent and were presented state wide and in classrooms. The first (2003) is a re-enactment of J.R. Clifford’s legal representation of Carrie Williams before the Supreme Court in 1892. Williams, a teacher at the Coketon Colored School in Tucker County, sued the state when she was told to teach for only 5 months while the schools for white students were in session for 8 months. The case, heard before the WV Supreme Court (1898) is a landmark in establishing equal pay for equal work and requiring equal school terms regardless of race. The second, titled “A New Home for Liberty” (2012-2013), is about West Virginia statehood and portrays a meeting between J.R. Clifford and Granville Hall who served as recorder for the early statehood conventions. The J.R. Clifford Project Papers include scripts, and publicity and promotional materials for both of the events.
Other projects are documented in the collection as well. These include a West Virginia African-American history map (2010), "Justice in the Mountains," with supporting research, social studies curricula for various grade levels, and sponsored events for MLK Day and History Day as well as other events. Another project was to compile a souvenir issue of J.R. Clifford’s newspaper, The Pioneer Press in Martinsburg. The collection contains 2 flat boxes and one oversized folder of facsimiles of pages (Boxes 5-6, oversize folder) from microfilm of Clifford’s newspaper The Pioneer Press and a few other newspapers, 1861-1915. The J.R. Clifford Project also resulted in a children’s book by Tom Rodd, J.R. Clifford and the Carrie Williams Case (2004?) with a copy and supporting documents included in the collection.
Background research material for the various projects cover West Virginia Black history and general U.S. Black history including slavery, lynching and the Civil Rights Movement; West Virginia Statehood; J.R. Clifford and the Clifford family (Box 10); key figures in the Carrie Williams trial; and the Niagara Movement and its key players. Much of the background research is from facsimiles of books, articles, court cases, and web pages.
Addendum of 2015/11/06 contains booklets, brochures, newspaper clippings, reproductions of an 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly detailing the life and career of JR Clifford and Carrie Williams’ case that he was part of, alongside the Friends of Blackwater conservation group’s interest in him. A lot of the material is what the group prepared as publicity and programming about Clifford, as well as The Pioneer Press souvenir edition (2006) newspaper discussing his work. (ca. 2005-2015; Box 11, Folders 1-3)
Addendum of 2022/03/05 contains a copy of The Pioneer Press (2022 souvenir edition) detailing writings from Clifford in 1915, and two brochures detailing the JR Clifford Project and the story of the roadside marker installed in 2012 for the Coketon Colored School, in which Clifford was able to meet Carrie Williams and take on her case. (ca. 2022; Box 11, Folder 4)
Addendum of 2023/03/22 contains compact discs containing various photos and videos, a VHS tape pertaining to the Clifford Project, a newspaper, one comic book produced by the JR Clifford Project about Clifford and the Carrie Williams case, and one Black History brochure. (undated; Box 12)
No specific access restrictions apply.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Friends of Blackwater, a West Virginia Highlands conservation group, sponsored various projects to celebrate J.R. Clifford, a Black Civil War Veteran, educator, lawyer, activist, and publisher. J.R. (John Robert) Clifford, 1848-1933, represented African American school teacher Carrie Williams in his most famous legal case which challenged the separate but equal doctrine in education and in employment.
Under the impetus of Tom Rodd, the Friends of Blackwater started the J.R. Clifford Project in 2003, beginning with a re-enactment of the Carrie Williams case; Williams was represented by J.R. Clifford before the West Virginia Supreme Court. The project created and provided community educational programs using living history re-enactments based on court records. The Project has also carried out historical research, seminars, publications, curricula, and preservation and interpretation related to Clifford’s life and era and the civil rights history of West Virginia. Many more projects continue to tell the story of J.R. Clifford and the Black experience in West Virginia through a robust web page and programming.
Friends of Blackwater. “The J.R. Clifford Project.” 29 April 2024, https://www.jrclifford.org/
11.18 Linear Feet (11 ft. 2.6 in. (8 record cartons, 15 in. each); (1 document box, 5 in.); (1 flat storage box, 1 in.); (2 flat storage boxes, 4 in. each); (1 oversize folder, 0.1 in.) )
English
When possible, original arrangement was maintained, althought the first four boxes may have been rearranged prior to processing. When available, original folder titles were used.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Gift of Rodd, Tom representing Friends of Blackwater, pre-2021 through 2023/11/03. This material was originally donated to the WVU College of Law Library prior to being transferred to the WVRHC.
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository