NAACP hopes to meet at W.Va. site

[davidinalameda]

http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2006020613/

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hopes to meet in West Virginia at the site of the first U.S. meeting of the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the NAACP.

The Niagara Movement was founded in 1905 in Ontario, Canada. Its first meeting in the United States came a year later when up to 200 black men and women gathered in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle to do something then considered radical: advocate equal rights for black Americans.

Without the Niagara Movement, there likely would be no black members of the U.S. Supreme Court, few in Congress, no desegregation and no civil rights, said George Rutherford of Charles Town.

Rutherford is co-chairman of a centennial committee that is planning a host of events in August to commemorate the 1906 meeting in an attempt to remind Americans about the Niagara Movement's importance. Organizers expect up to 25,000 people to attend.

[Hubert Flottz]

1. What better place than the eastern panhandle, where John Brown

rests?


I love the Eastern Panhandle. It's beautiful and filled with so many historical spots. Harper's Ferry is awesome, such a sad place, but yet so beautiful. I feel like I'm walking around with ghosts when I walk among the famous old reconstructed houses and streets there. The Potomac Highlands and the Shenandoah valley are national treasures. I'm glad the NAACP chose our state to meet in and I hope they enjoy the Panhandle as much as I do, when I get a chance to visit that part of our state.

[theHandpuppet]

2. I was thinking the exact same thing!

Harper's Ferry would be a great choice. It's time the ultra-red Eastern Panhandle was reminded of its own history. My second choice would be Wheeling, which as I understand it was the state's capital until political forces sympathetic to the "Southern Cause" decided to move it south to Charleston. Besides, the Wheeling economy could sure use a boost.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Here's more on the Niagara Movement

Very interesting site!

http://www.clifford-niagara.org/

[jelavich]

4. Thanks for the link

That is a nice little bit of WV history for all of us!