By William “Skip” Deegans
One of the first civil rights cases regarding racial discrimination in the United States was won in West Virginia in 1898. Caroline “Carrie” Williams was an African American teacher who taught in a segregated school in Coketon, a small coal mining community in Tucker County. In an effort to save money, the Tucker County Board of Education reduced the school term in colored schools from eight to five months. Williams refused to comply with the board’s decision and continued teaching the full eight months. At the end of the term, she sent the board a bill for $120 – her pay for teaching three months. The board refused to pay, and Williams sued in 1893.
Representing Williams was John Robert Clifford, West Virginia’s first African American lawyer. Born in Hardy County, West Virginia, Clifford enrolled in the Union Army’s colored troops and served as a corporal in the Civil War. He graduated from Storer College in Harpers Ferry in 1874 and became an educator before being admitted to the bar in 1887. He started Pioneer Press, the first newspaper in West Virginia owned by an African American.
The case, Carrie Williams v. The Board of Education of Fairfax District, Tucker County, reached the West Virginia Supreme Court and was decided in her favor in 1898. Justice Marmaduke H. Dent, wrote, “Discrimination against the colored people, because of color alone, as to privileges, immunities, and equal legal protection, is contrary to public policy and the law of the land. If any discrimination as to education should be made, it should be favorable to, and not against, the colored people.” School segregation would continue until the 1954 U. S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Clifford was a leader in the Civil Rights movement and is shown in the above photograph standing on the left. Also in the photograph are W. E. B. DuBois, L. M. Hershaw and F. H. M. Murray. Honoring Clifford who died in 1933 is a scholarship for minority students at the West Virginia University School of Law.
Photo courtesy of the West Virginia University West Virginia & Regional History Center.
Sources: Martinsburg Independent, West Virginia University Library, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, West Virginia College of Law.