J.R. CLIFFORD
from Afrolachian artist Peshka Colloway’s series “Black Diamonds of WV.”
J.R. Clifford is West Virginia’s first Black attorney out of Martinsburg, WV. He was a newspaper publisher (Pioneer Press, the longest-running Black newspaper), editor and writer, school teacher, and principal. He was a Civil War veteran, grandfather, civil rights pioneer, and founding member of the Niagara Movement (forerunner to the NAACP). Psst. Mr. Clifford’s crown is mountains.
NEWS TO KNOW
The WV Democratic Party is creating a Black Caucus.
Please encourage African Americans to register for the WVDP “Affirmative Action” Caucus as we know Black West Virginians have long needed the WV Democratic Party to decide to be inclusive.
WVDP “Reformers,” which is a funny word, but that’s how it was described to BBG, have successfully forced the WVDP, after almost 50 years of refusing to comply with Party rules regarding inclusion, to come into compliance by talking to the DNC.
CHARLESTON (WV) POLICE SHOOT BLACK MAN – IN THE BACK
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT (video footage)
Police in Charleston, West Virginia, shoot and wound a Black man. (AP)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The police chief of West Virginia’s capital city said two officers shot and wounded a Black man wielding a knife Friday afternoon, a confrontation captured on police body camera video that was released at a news conference. Read More.
Long left to struggle on its own, West Side in need of transformational change.
By Joe Servino, HD Media
We’re at a very, very critical juncture for this community,” said the Rev. Matthew Watts, a longtime community advocate and pastor at Grace Bible Church. “Things could get much worse, and they could get much worse in a short period of time.”
The window, Watts predicts, is closing. If city leaders cannot start pointing to real examples of holistic change in three months to a year, the neighborhood will be lost forever. Just think of how things have declined since the 2010 census, he said. Read more.
Have Democrats had enough of Joe Manchin? By David Fryson for the Charleston Gazette
” It’s time for Manchin’s influence in the national Democratic party to be curtailed before he diminishes it the way that he has helped demolish the Democratic Party in West Virginia.” Read More…
Charleston Remembers KJ Taylor (WVPB)
Recently, a Kanawha County teen, KJ Taylor, was shot and killed on Glenwood Avenue on Charleston’s West Side. In what his friends would say was either a stray bullet or a case of mistaken identity, KJ was hit in the chest and died moments later. Read More….
BBG (Black By God) IN THE NEWS !!
Addressing the information gap for Black West Virginians — Columbia Journalism Review!
Launched in 2020 as a website and newsletter, Black by God, the West Virginian is a young publication with a small audience; “it’s in beta,” as Good says. But Good believes deeply in the role publications like hers can play in the future of local journalism. Read more…
Editors Note
I’m typing this in the airport, ATL. It’s almost midnight. There is no food (I’m hangry) – I’ve been here hours trying to get back to Charleston, WV.
My youngest child, Aiden Satterfield, is playing in the State Basketball Tournament and graduating this month. ( Watch this WOWK piece about his 1,000 record-breaking game! )
I am happy, but I, too, know that many mothers are grieving their sons. May 3rd, another teenager, another athlete, another gun, another shot, another death.
Dwayne Richardson, 19, from Beckley, West Virginia.
I feel this painful news again. You do too. But what do we do?
When I get home, I’m hoping a book I ordered by The Black Mermaid Julia Mallory called Survivor’s Guilt will be waiting for me. It’s a book that crystallizes her grief experience after the death of her oldest son Julian in 2017. The writer is trying to understand what it means to live in a world of pervasive, premature Black death.
I don’t know how we understand insanity, but my friend and favorite artist Natasha Marin always directs the senses back to Black Joy. The book she curated, Black Imagination, is a must.
I’m learning to hold my joy in difficult times.
The tiny part of America called West Virginia is in difficult times. And. If we get honest about the conditions in West Virginia, can we say that much has changed in the last hundred years for Black people?
There are infinite stories to tell – and the one that is being written now about what happens next in the history of Black West Virginians.
I have big plans for this publication — lots of original content, cartoons, resources — but I need support — money is great. It helps.
@BlackByGod on Venmo or buy a BBG button or t-shirt from BoomBoomPanties.com
Still, we need citizen journalists to send us their stories, help us contextualize events, share tweets, curate sociel media, and help us find ways to be nimble in crisis and broker opportunities to the community.
Most importantly, to me – how can BBG be more helpful and seed more joy?
Tell us (304) 648-4733
And. Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your support.
Keep Good,
Crystal
Ps.
It’s 3:15 am — I made it home.
