House Resolution 11
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Thompson, and Delegates Ashley, Beach,
Boggs, Brown, Caputo, Doyle, Ferro, Fleischauer, Frazier,
Guthrie, Hall, Hatfield, Kominar, Louisos, Mahan, Marshall,
Martin, Michael, Moore, Morgan, Pethtel, Phillips, Skaff,
Spencer, Staggers, Stephens, Varner, Walker, Wells, White and
Wooton)
{Introduced February 20, 2009.]
Designating February 20, 2009, as "Civil Rights Pioneer J. R.
Clifford Day".
Whereas, West Virginia Civil Rights Pioneer John Robert "J.R."
Clifford was born in 1848 on a farm near Moorefield, West Virginia,
and at the age of 16 enlisted in the 13
th Regiment of the Union
Army, fought in the civil war and is buried in Arlington Cemetery;
and
Whereas, J. R. Clifford taught school in Wheeling, Harpers
Ferry, and Martinsburg; and
Whereas, In 1882, Clifford founded the longest running national
African American newspaper at that time, the
Pioneer Press, and
became active in state and national African American politics; and
Whereas, Clifford "read law" in a local attorney's office in
Martinsburg and in 1887 was admitted to practice before the West
Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, becoming West Virginia's first
African American lawyer; and
Whereas, In 1892, Clifford represented Carrie Williams, an
African American schoolteacher, in a landmark West Virginia civil
rights case from Coketon in the Blackwater Canyon region of Tucker
County, in
Williams v. Board of Education; and
Whereas, The
Williams case established the right of the
children of African American workers in Tucker County coal mines
and coke ovens, and all African American schoolchildren in West
Virginia, to school terms of equal length as those enjoyed by white
children and also established the right of African American
schoolteachers in West Virginia to equal pay. A right that over
the decades led to a remarkable level of excellence in West
Virginia's public segregated colleges for African Americans prior
to 1954; and
Whereas, The
Williams case was a first in American
jurisprudence and played an important role in establishing West
Virginia as a State where African Americans could exercise rights
and opportunities in education, voting and jury service that
translated into political and economic power; and
Whereas, The exercise of these rights and this kind of power by
African Americans after the Civil War, in West Virginia and elsewhere, led to the emergence of a new level of African American
educational, civic, religious, business, academic and political
leadership that became the crucible of the civil rights movement of
the 20
th Century, which crystallized its vision at the Niagara
Movement meeting at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in August of 1906;
and
Whereas, The United States Postal Service recognized J. R.
Clifford as one of this Nation's most important Civil Rights
Pioneers on its February 2009 Commemorative Stamp set; therefore,
be it
Resolved by the House of Delegates:
That the House of Delegates hereby designates February 20,
2009, as "Civil Rights Pioneer J. R. Clifford Day" and encourages
all citizens to join us in this observance; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates
forward a certified copy of this resolution to the J. R. Clifford
Project.
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